LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. GIFT OF rV.V* cK^/vU/WCr.^ Class Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York A SERIES OF SEVEN VOLUMES CONTAINING A SYSTEM OF COMPARATIVE AESTHETICS. By GEO. L. RAYMOND, L.H.D., PROFESSOR OF ^ESTHETICS, PRINCETON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITIES. "We consider Professor Raymond to possess something like an ideal equipment for the line of work he has entered upon. His own poetry is genuine and delicately constructed, his appreciations are true to high ideals, and his power of scientific analysis is unquestionable." . . . He "was known, when a student at Williams, as a musician and a poet tne latter be- cause of taking, in his freshman year, a prize in verse over the whole college. After gradu- ating in this country, he went through a course in aesthetics with Professor Vischer of the University of Tubingen, and also with Professor Curtius at the time when that historian of Greece was spending several hours a week with his pupils among the marbles of the Berlin Mu- seum. Subsequently, believing that all the arts are, primarily, developments of different . forms of expression through the tones and movements of the body, Professor Raymond made a thorough study, chiefly in Paris, of methods of cultivating and using the voice in both sing- ing and speaking, and of representing thought and emotion through postures and gestures. It is a result of these studies that he afterwards developed, first, into his methods of teaching elocution and literature" (as embodied in his 'Orator's Manual' and 'The Writer') "and later into his aesthetic system. ... A Princeton man has said of him that he has as keen a sense for a false poetic element as a bank expert for a counterfeit note; and a New York model who posed for him, when preparing illustrations for one of his books, said that he was the only man that he had ever met who could invariably, without experiment, tell him at once what' posture to assume in order to represent any required sentiment.'' New York Times. IArt in Theory. 8vo, cloth extra .... $1.75 Analyzes art and beauty, and the different formulated theories concerning them. "A well grounded, thoroughly supported, and entirely artistic conception of art as a whole, that will lead observers to apply its principles . . . and to distrust the charlatanism that imposes an idle and superficial mannerism upon the public in place of true beauty and honest workmanship." The New York Times. "A book like this is especially welcome at the present day, when the plague of putrid anaemia is wasting the very substance of mind, when in literature egoism dominates, and in art impressionism, to the exclusion in the one case of truth and in the other of thought. We cordially recommend this book to all who desire to import something of deliberation and ac- curacy into their thinking about matters of art." The (London) Realm. . "His style is good, and his logic sound, and ... of the greatest possible service to the student of artistic theories."- A rt Journal (London). "Scores an advance upon the many art-criticisms extant. . . . Twenty brilliant chapters, pregnant with suggestion. . . . An author not bound by mental servitude." Popular Science Monthly. "Every careful reader must be delighted at the handling of the subject at once so har- monious and symmetrical as well as natural. ... It appears in a form which one may almost call artistic in itself." The Dial, signed by E. E. Hale, Jr. "The work is one that has been inspired by the true spirit of aestheticism a genuine 'art-inspiration.' By nature the author is himself an artist. His books have been freely criti- cised, but the breadth of his thought and knowledge, the combined assurance and subtlety of his reasoning, his suggestiveness and enthusiasm must be allowed by his keenest reviewers." New Haren Register. "Professor Raymond is doing a genuine service by these profound and fascinating books. He raises the standard of intelligence upon art subjects by a considerable measure. He helps make the United States more ready for the day when true art shall abound much more widely, and be understood much more clearly." Public Opinion. II The Representative Significance of Form, 8vo, cloth extra, $2.00 Considers thought and emotion as attributable to aatural forms and to subconscious and conscious mental action, and to genius and acquired skill in religion, science, and art, and to the epic, realistic, and dramatic in each art. "A ripe work of a ripe scholar. Professor Raymond recalls the two incomplete tendencies in art; the first, that of 'the transcendentalists, who confounded artistic inspiration with reli- gious inspiration, and the second, that of the French school, which confuses artistic observation with scientific observation. In these twenty-seven solid chapters, the author has struggled with the tremendous task of restoring that balance between these two extremes which charac- terizes the highest art. The latter part of the volume is especially satisfactory owing to the clear manner in which the definitions and characteristics of epic, realistic, and dramatic art, Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York together with their various subdivisions in the different arts, are made to seem inevitable." Boston Transcript. "It is a very scholarly study of a most interesting and important tonic. s It is a careful investigation of the sources of human conceptions, religious, scientific, and artistic, and of the artistic forms through which these conceptions find appropriate expression. The book is evi- dently the ripe fruit of years of patient and exhaustive study on the part of a man singularly fitted for his task. It is profound in insight, searching in analysis, broad in spirit, and thor- oughly modern in method and sympathy. The first and more strictly philosophical part of the work cannot fail to be helpful to ministers who are trying to deal with the great problems of theology as they present themselves today." The Universalist Leader. "Its title gives no intimation to the general reader of its attractiveness for him, or to curious readers of its widely discursive range of interest. ... Its broad range may remind one of those scythe-bearing chariots with which the ancient Persians used to mow down hostile files. The writer must be conceded an equal liberty of spreading with the warrior, and Pro- fessor Raymond has availed himself of it with good reason, to the fullest extent. . . . Profes- sor Raymond's endeavor in his whole work is to get toward that balance between . . . oppos- ing tendencies which characterized ancient Hellenic art. Cut this demands a correct recogni- tion both of the relationship of art alike to religion and to science, and of the limitations to art which the double relationship involves. Nothing can be foreign to a thorough treatment of aesthetics that is needed to bring out the facts which define and establish this relationship and the discriminations it requires. . . . Professor Raymond seems justified in his insistence on a larger recognition of the subconscious activity of the mind as the condition of a revival of art and equally of the relief of religion from a deadening materialism and a stifling tradi- tionalism. ... In all departments truth is the product of an activity which is blended of conscious and subconscious factors. Here he comes on ground which some will question, but he does not go beyond what conservative investigators in the field of psychical research regard as satisfactorily established." The Outlook. "An original thinker and writer, the charm of his style and clearness of expression make Mr. Raymond's book possible to the general reader, though worthy of the study of the student and scholar. He proclaims the truth as he finds it, and in view of the sceptical and material- istic tendencies of most scientific criticism, it is not an unimportant task which he has per- formed, that of showing that all that is needed for the highest spiritual stimulus, all that is vital to practical religion can command acknowledgment and acceptance upon its own merits." Hartford Courant. "A valuable essay. . . While . . . far from being so metaphysical as to be unreadable or lacking in concrete teaching, it deals with general principles and moves in a highly rarefied atmosphere of speculation. It is really in effect a treatise on the meaning of artistic meaning . . . Professor Raymond goes so deep into causes as to explore the subconscious and the un- conscious mind for a solution of his problems, and eloquently to range through the conceptions of religion, science and metaphysics in order to find fixed principles of taste. . . . He gives the matter a highly interesting discussion from which a student will derive ... a strong and healthy stimulus to independent reflection." The Scotsman (Edinburgh). Ill Poetry as a Representative Art. Fully illustrated with quota- tions from the foremost poets. 8vo, cloth extra . . $i-75 "A remarkable work, alike for the completeness with which a very comprehensive subject is treated, and for an acuteness and originally which open up new relations and applications that render the scope of the subject still more extensive. The technique of versification, the rhetoric of poetical composition, and the mutual bearings of the two, have received no lack of attention; but we know of no book to be compared with this, in bringing the whole into unity as distinctively a 'representative art. 7 . . . We can promise the reader that he will find it lu- minous and interesting. ... We hail this work as a great contribution to clear thought. . . . Mere sentiment or imagination will not constitute the poet (par excellence, 'the maker') any more than sensitiveness to color and harmony and form will furnish a painter, a musician, a sculptor, or an architect. It is the ignoring of the fact that poetry is equally an art of repre- sentation, the picturing, and modeling, and singing of thoughts and feelings by visible and audible symbols, which accounts for the failure of many a promising aspirant for the bays." Christian Intelligencer. "The scope of his work embraces every relation of poetry to language and to sentiment. The author's plan is an exhaustive one; his manner of working it out shows a thorough study of his subject and an astonishing familiarity with the whole range of English poetry. . . . crit- ically examined. The student of literature will find the book worthy of exhaustive study. Philadelphia Inquirer. "I have read it with pleasure, and a sense of instruction on many points." Francis Turner Palgrave, Professor of Poetry, Oxford University. "Dieses ganz vortreffliche Werk."- Englishche Studien, Universtitat Breslau. "An acute, interesting, and brilliant piece of work. ... As a whole, the essay deserves unqualified praise. If every poetic aspirant could learn it by heart, the amount of versifying might be reduced by a half, and the amount of poetry increased by a larger ratio. ... It ap- plies the test under whose touch the dull line fails. It goes further than this, and furnishes the key to settle the vexed questions as to moralizing and didactic verse, and the dangerous terms on which sense and sound meet in verse." N. Y. Independent. "Treats a broad and fertile subject with scholarly proficiency and earnestness, and an amplitude and exactness of illustration that makes his work definitely and clearly explicit. New Orleans Times-Democrat. "The work will be welcomed, must be studied, and will grow upon the schools as it is appreciated." Journal of Education. Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., New York "Certainly of its kind, nothing has been offered the American public so excellent as this. Professor Raymond has thorough insight, a complete mastery of critical style, and a thorough acquaintance with the poets. He has produced something that must live." Hartford Post. "The results are the most important ones yet attained in its department, and, we believe, the most valuable." Boston Globe. "Professor Raymond has rendered a valuable service to literary criticism. There is un- doubtedly far less general knowledge of the canons of poetic art than there is of the princi- ples underlying painting and sculpture. Yet there are absolute and attainable standards of poetic excellence, and upon these may be founded a system of criticism. Such standards can- not, of course, altogether be taught . . . but their underlying principles can be taught, and, perhaps, they have never been so well set forth as by Professor Raymond." Boston Traveller. "A profound, and, as nearly as may be, a satisfactory natural history of poetry itself. The reason of poetry, its right to be, and the sources of its power will stand out clearly before the mind of the reader. . . . The study of Professor Raymond's volume by the rising genera- tion of preachers would go far toward endowing the sermon of the immediate future with a high ana chaste literary quality." Presbyterian Review. IV Painting 1 , Sculpture, and Architecture as Representative Arts. With 225 illustrations, 8vo $2.50 "Expression by means of extension or size . . . shape . . . regularity in outlines . . . the human body . . . posture, gesture, and movement . . . are all considered. ... A specially interesting chapter is the one on color. . . . The author has worked out his theory logically and minutely; the book is one for careful study." Current Literature. "As a matter of necessity such a work must be more or less technical, but the author, in this instance, has succeeded in freeing himself, to a great extent, from all technical words and phrases, thereby making his book much more acceptable to the general reader. Each thought is exemplified by illustrations so judiciously selected that even the uninitiated can readily grasp the meaning . . . helping ... to better understand and appreciate art, while to the student it will prove of absorbing interest." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. "The volume is one of great value to the student of art for art's sake. It is profusely illustrated." Boston Transcript. "The artist will find in it a wealth of profound and varied learning; of original, sugges- tive, and most helpful thought ... of absolutely inestimable value. He will perceive more perfectly than ever before the representative character of art, and how it can be used as a medium of human thought and emotion." The Looker-on. "The work combines to a rare degree the excellences of the scholar, the artist, and the philosopher. Mr. Raymond is not an imitator. His work is his own, and his broadness of view and logical presentation of his facts and theories make his books memorable contributions to the literature of aesthetics." Portland (Me.) Transcript. "The whole book is the work of a man of exceptional thoughtfulness, who says what he has to say in a remarkably lucid and direct manner." The Philadelphia Press. V The Genesis of Art-Form. Fully illustrated. 8vo . . $2.25 "In a spirit at once scientific and that of the true artist, he pierces through the manifes- tations of art to their sources, and shows the relations, intimate and essential, between paint- ing, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture. A book that possesses not only singular value, but singular charm." N. Y. Times. "This book is one whose usefulness cannot be exhausted in any one line of art, but ap- plies to all. It is equally useful for the student of prose, poetry, and rhetoric. It will enrich and deepen his conceptions of the principles of art-form as applied to language and his ability to apply them. For all kinds of large criticism as concerned with art in any department, it is a book of great merit." The Independent. "A help and a delight. Every aspirant for culture in any of the liberal arts, including music and poetry, will find something in this book to aid him." Boston Times. "The work is one which the art-student will enjoy, while the veriest novice cannot read it without learning something that he ought to know. ' Rochester Herald. "It is the production of an expert who, although a specialist, is broad in his knowledge and sympathetic in his applications. ... It is eminently a suggestive, stimulating work, and many young readers will thank the author not only for the facts and principles which he has stated and illustrated, but also for a powerful and healthful impulse in uplifting directions." Boston Congregationalist. "In the same lucid, straightforward style is Professor Raymond's essay on comparative aesthetics. So much has been \yritten about art in the obscure, enigmatic way that relief from it is a kind of pleasure. . . . Simplicity can be noble, grand, and effective, and he who reads these books will never suffer the misgivings the old grandiloquence . . . was quite likely to provoke as to the effectual value of any art-criticism. . . . 'The Genesis of Art-Form' is a contribution to thought. ... It is his theory that the great masters pursued the methods pointed out, but not knowingly, perhaps." The Providence Journal. "It is impossible to withhold one's admiration froni a treatise which exhibits in such a rare degree the qualities of philosophic criticism." Philadelphia Press. VI Rhythm and Harmony in Poetry and Music. Together with Music as a Representative Art. 8vo, cloth extra . $1.75 "The author covers the whole ground of poetics, including scansion and verse-forms, antl explains the means by which poetic effects are attained by the use of variety in measure and Published by G.P.Putnamjjons, 27 & 29 West 23d St.,New Yoi line alliteration, etc. . . The historical origin and development of the musical scale furn ma'enal for an interesting chanter, while several others are devoted to the means of exprt ing ideas through "music . . - illustrated by motives from various operas. The book is full ^Spjid ^here-ld^T wo^d Lm ^thfreader as if detail had run itself i, neaiiinffless fragments, or as if the author's theory were overburdened with trivial illust tTons but r'ead though from beginning to end, the cook shows solid thinking, sound positio and iiat significance in the details which prove them. N Y. Observer. K The analysis j s . at times, so subtle as to be almost beyond the reach of words, but t author's grasp of his subject nowhere slackens, and the quiet flow of the style remains i clouded in expressing even the most intricate phases of his argument. . . . No treatment cov be freer from technicalities or word- juggling, hven to a mind unprepared for the close r son.ng of some parts of the book, as a whole it will be stimulating with that large suggesti m- that accompanies a widening of the mental horizon." Portland Oregoman. "Pn.fessor Raymond has chosen a delightful subject, and he treats it with all the chai of narrative and high thought and profound study." New Orleans States. "In other wavs Professor Raymond's book calls for high praise, and in nothing more th for the gallant way in which he stands for higher ideals in art than those which are popul in these days." Springfield Republican. "The reader must be, indeed, a person either of supernatural stupidity or of marvello erudition, who docs not discover much information in Professor Raymond s exhaustive a instructive treatise. From page to page it is full of suggestion. T he Academy (London) Vii Proportion and Harmony of Line and Color in Paintir- Sculpture, and Architecture. Fully illustrated, 8vo . $2 ' "Marked by profound thought along lines unfamiliar to most readers and thinkers. When grasped, however, it becomes a source of great enjoyment and exhilaration. . . . study of human proportions and measurements is particularly interesting, as showing the and congruity in nature's handiwork. He would show us that the same unity and order . characterize all works of art. ... It is addressed to the practical artist who paints. ' models clay, or writes music, yet is of equal value to the critical student of art who \v. form his judgment of the world's productions in art on sound lines. In short, no critical p son can afford to ignore so valuable a contribution to the art-thought of the day as Profes Raymond has given us in this series of volumes." The Art-Interchange (N. Y.). "The book is comprehensive and particular. It is scientific and mathematical to the c' without destroying the beauty of the creations it analyzes. It is, above all, logical and met odical, maintaining its argument and carrying along from one subject to another the dedu lions which have preceded. The luminous treatment ... is one of the triumphs of the boc and the application of the theories expounded . . . will arouse discussion in every ai school. The closing chapter sums up the results of the seven volumes of the series, and worthy of mention as condensing the conclusions of seven highly technical volumes into few pages. . . . For scholar and specialist, and as books of reference, the series is imal.iab and the present volume stands high in it for its plain and convincing statement of a great involved subject." Portland (Me.) Transcript. "The fruit of profound study and observation that cannot but be of the greatest aid t true conception of what is truly artistic, and to the forming of a correct taste. It is a learii and luminous criticism of methods, and a most profound analysis of the effects of proportic and harmony when properly employed. The thoroughness and clearness with which it is dc will be surprising to the layman, and canno^ but open the eyes of even the professional artis 4 to a new importance and new possibilities in the subjects treated. The author brushes asid all schools and all fashions of art and goes to the root of the subject the production of th; proportion and harmony in form which shall be permanently dignified, noble, and pleasing i the human eye. Every suitable example of ancient or modern art is drawn upon for illustr; tion, and all the elements of form which constitute the greatness of the world's masterpiece explained. The text is aided by hundreds of illustrations and diagrams." Pittsburg lime. "The author has covered this fascinating field as no other writer, so far as known to th Hawk-Eye, has ever attempted, and he Has brought to his task a ripeness of scholarship and terseness of expression that give to his themes a special charm even to those readers whom h leads into hitherto untrodden pathways. One does not need to be a scholar to follow scholar as he teaches while seeming to entertain; for he does both." Burlington Hawk- "The artist who wishes to penetrate the mysteries of color, the sculptor who desires i cultivate his sense of proportion, or the architect whose ambition is to reach to a high standar will find the work helpful and inspiring." Boston Transcript. "The philosophy underlying and permeating the whole structure of this intelligent ar criticism should be given, in and out of educational institutions, the widest possible publicitj Like others of Professor Raymond's series, it will be found a mine of original, suggestive and helpful thought." Boston Globe. The Essentials of ^Esthetics. Fully illustrated, 8vo $2.5( A compendium of the preceding volumes, designed as a Text-Book "So lucid in expression and rich in illustration that every page contains matter of dee interest even to the general reader." Boston Herald. "It can hardly fail to make talent more rational, genius more conscious of the principle ft art. MM the critic and connoisseur better equipped for impression, judgment and appraise ment." New York Times. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSPIRATION ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH RELIGIOUS FROM SCIEN- TIFIC TRUTH AND TO HARMONIZE CHRISTI- ANITY WITH MODERN THOUGHT BY GEORGE LANSING RAYMOND FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY gorfe anb Honfcon 1908 v OF THE :NIVERSiTY / COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY Printed in the United States of America. Published, December, 1907. PREFACE Near the end of a life which began with a theo- logical training, but has been spent mainly as a pro- fessor in college or university, I find myself with this book prepared for publication. Some of it was written several years ago; some of it has been written re- cently, but the whole has been carefully revised. It is the outgrowth of an endeavor exceptional, as is thought, in its processes, tho not in its purposes to find a way in which all that is essential to the methods and results of scientific and historic research can be accepted, while, at the same time, nothing that is es- sential to the theory or practise of religion need be rejected. That, in our age, any endeavor with this object in view is deserving of the effort expended upon it requires no arguing. A few months ago I was dining beside a scholar who presides over one of the foremost educational institu- tions of New England. "Why is it," I asked him, "that Andover Seminary has so few students?" "Mainly," he answered, "because the New England colleges have so few who want to study theology." "Yes," I said, "they are waiting for my book." "What book?" he asked. "Mine, or some other," I answered, "written to show that a man can be both an out-and-out Christian and a thorough scientist; iii 17469.3 IV PREFACE can exercise to the full both faith and rationality; can be bound to a church for his support, yet be free in his methods of thinking." "A hard thing to prove," he said. "Yes," I replied, "but it must be proved by some one, or else religion itself can not hold the ap- proval of most of us." Then I explained that, for years, while occupying a professorship necessarily bringing me into close relations with students profi- cient in oratory, I had noticed a gradual decrease in the proportionate number and quality of those enter- ing the Christian ministry, altho many failing to do so had seemed not only particularly fitted for success in it, but particularly unfitted, intellectually, morally, or spiritually, for following with satisfaction to them- selves any other calling.* Their turning from the * The following enumeration of students and graduates in theological semi- naries of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, as reported to the General Assembly for the years 1895 and 1907, was printed in The Princeton (N. J.) Press of September 28, 1907, under the signature of Rev. Lewis W. Mudge, D.D. Students. Graduates. 1895 1907 1896 1907 Princeton 264 112 100 29 24 208 31 39 61 40 19 23 178 62 72 38 42 106 12 11 22 51 19 26 78 42 32 6 3 78 14 5 8 9 5 8 44 20 21 9 27 - 2 2 16 7 Auburn Western . . . Lane Kentucky McCormick San Francisco German Dubuque. . . . . German Newark Lincoln Biddle Omaha Totals 950 639 288 155 These figures are still more significant in view of the great increase, during these twelve years, in the total population of the country and of the yet greater pro- portionate increase in the number of those attending the colleges from which the students of Presbyterian seminaries are drawn. PREFACE V ministry, I said, so far as they had given expression to that which had influenced them, had seemed due less to any lack of sympathy with religion in general than to a repugnance to becoming special pleaders and hired advocates of what appealed to them as a narrow and biased, and, so far, uncourageous and un- manly method of accepting and interpreting religious dogmas and practises. Such being the case, I exprest to my neighbor my conception of the importance of one of the objects to be undertaken in this book namely, the removing of difficulties in the way of those whose mental attitude is that of the students just described. The serious reader will ask, at once, whether this undertaking is feasible; whether what is proposed can be done in any such way as to do justice to all the re- quirements of religion. If it can not be so done, then, of course, this book must prove a failure. It will merely add one more volume to the many, already too numerous, in which the spiritual is ignored for the sake of the comprehensible, or the comprehensible for the sake of the spiritual. This book can prove a suc- cess in the degree alone in which neither of these is ignored, but each is credited with the influence legiti- mate to it, and this in its entirety. But if it be feasi- ble to attain such a result, so stated, why has it not been attained before? One reason is that it has not before been demanded, or, at least, not as universally as at present. Another reason is that the facts from v i PREFACE which deductions such as are to be presented in this book can be logically drawn had not been studied, were not understood, and, presumably, could not have been conceived by the theologians of even the last century, to say nothing of men like Calvin or Luther, or like Augustine or Aquinas. At the same time it is somewhat remarkable that, even in such circumstances, some of the conclusions indicated in the pages that follow have not already been more widely recognized than is the case. Most of our Protestant churches, for instance, profess to ac- cept the principles underlying the Protestant Refor- mation, especially the one assigning authority to the Christian Scriptures, and the one asserting the right of private judgment in interpreting these. But most of our Protestant theologians seem reluctant, at least, to admit that either principle should be carried to a logical conclusion. In doing this, as must be confest, they are faithfully following the examples set by both Calvin and Luther. But historians, without excep- tion, attribute mainly to these examples the sudden check put, in the sixteenth century, upon the prog- ress of the Reformation. May future historians be saved from attributing to the same a like check put, in the twentieth century, upon the progress of all Christianity! Why is the danger of such a check a present menace? Because the science of the day trains the mind to be candid and logical; and theology is inclined to be neither. If, for instance, two pas- PREFACE vii sages of Scripture seem to conflict, and so evidently, too, that every thinking mind must perceive it, the theologian, instead of frankly admitting the fact and then trying to find a theory that will justify it as a fact, either denies that it is a fact, or, as will be shown hereafter, makes only one of the two passages authori- tative.* Again, while admitting, as a matter of theory, the right of private judgment, he by no means al- ways acknowledges it in practise, especially when an- other's interpretation of Scripture differs greatly from his own. No one can deny that such attitudes of mind tend to lessen very considerably the influence of the reformed churches, while, at the same time, they do not strengthen that of the unreformed. Those in the reformed churches desire, as a rule, not less but more candor and logic, which is exactly what the unre- formed are not prepared to give them; and those in the unreformed churches, if affected at all by a similar desire, are apt, like the French of our day, to look for the fulfilment of it beyond the confines of any church, even reformed, in which their demands can, at best, be only partly met. This is the same as to say that, in this age of general education and scientific thinking, religion, in order to preserve its influence over men, must be prepared, without prevaricating or hedging, to satisfy all the requirements of the rational nature. One object of the treatise that follows is to present a theory in accordance with which this can be done * See pages 142, 106, 199, 307, and 308. viii PREFA CE As applied to practise, the aim of the book may be illustrated thus: Some time ago I attended a meeting of scientists. As I looked about me I became aware that, so far as I knew, not one of those present was considered by himself or by others to be what is con- ventionally termed religious. Yet in the unselfish, untiring and well-nigh unrewarded labor that every one of these seemed performing for the advancement of the knowledge, the health, and the comfort of his fel- lows, I recognized such devotion, conscientiousness, and charity as could not be rightly designated irre- ligious. About the same time my attention was called to a meeting of ecclesiastics. All who took part in it were, presumably, considered by themselves and by others to be religious in an exceptional degree. Yet no reported speech of any one of them happened to be devoid of a certain selfish, intolerant, and un- magnanimous disregard of the feelings and thoughts of others such as, so far as one could draw just con- clusions from a few utterances, did not place the speaker outside the pale of those ordinarily supposed to be particularly characterized by distinctively Christ- like traits. In view of these facts, it seemed to me that it was about time for the world to have some criterion more trustworthy than those commonly ac- cepted by which to judge of the kind of faith and life separating the religious from the non-religious. This seemed especially important in view of the influence which men of both types mentioned are constantly PREFACE ix exerting upon the young and the inexperienced. Is it not unfortunate that one of the first type, whom these can not but esteem and, therefore, instinctively strive to imitate, should be connected in their minds with irreligious and not infrequently injurious precepts and examples, which, if also imitated, can not but lead astray? And is it not equally unfortunate that a man of the second type whom the same classes can not fail often to disesteem, and, therefore, to strive not to imitate, should be the one connected in their minds with that which is religious and, as a rule, elevating and fitted to lead aright? Is there any need of pre- venting a man of either type from exerting the sort of influence for which his personal traits fit him? It does not seem to me that there is. But before this can be recognized by most men they require clearer views than they usually have with reference to the connection between Christianity as a system and the Christian as a subject of it. Here is a reason, there- fore, in addition to reasons already given and to others naturally associated with each, seeming to justify, as applied to practise as well as to theory, an attempt, as in this book, to make a more careful study than has yet been undertaken of the nature of that phase of in- fluence to which spiritually minded people believe that religion owes its source. I may, perhaps, be excused for mentioning, before closing this Preface, two regards in which the thought presented in the pages following differs essentially X. PREFACE from that in almost all other works written with a somewhat similar intent. In the first place, while em- phasizing the importance of rationality in religion, the arguments advanced are not in the least degree allied to those of " rationalism" in the materialistic sense in which this term is ordinarily used. On the contrary, they tend distinctly toward belief in the spiritual, and this to a degree not true of very many of the Chris- tian discussions of our times. In the second place, while emphasizing spiritual discernment as necessary to the understanding of the literal statements of the Scriptures, the arguments are not advanced as pleas for nor, indeed, against any merely esoteric method of interpreting occult symbols or allegories. On the contrary, the whole line of thought tends distinctly toward confidence in the sufficient intellectual equip- ment of those who exercise merely honest and un- biased common sense. GEORGE LANSING RAYMOND. THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY. November 1, 1907. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE Conditions of Prevailing Thought Which Occasioned This Book- Comprehensive Character of the Results Reached in It In- spiration and Revelation Apparent Inaccuracy in the Hebraic and Christian Scriptures No Writings or Utterances Sup- posed to Be Inspired Are Free from Ambiguity, or from the Liability of Being Interpreted Differently A Logical Mind Can Not Accept This Condition Unless It Perceive Some Rea- son for It This Reason Must Be Found, if at All, in the Na- ture of the Spirit Inspiring, of Which We Can Not Know ; or of the Man or Mankind Inspired, of Which We Can Know. ... 1 CHAPTER I THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN SEEK WHEN THEY SEARCH FOR IT, AND THINK THAT THEY FIND WHEN THEY OBTAIN IT Methods Through Which It Is Proposed to Ascertain the Nature of Truth Scientists and Philosophers Search for Truth as Something Behind Appearances in Space And in Time- Therefore Conceive It to Be Not Alone in the Appearances Themselves But in These as Related to Certain Methods of Operation Same Facts Shown by the Treatment Given to Formal Statements The Truth in Them Discovered by Re- garding Relations to Surrounding Circumstances Therefore to Methods of Operation Absolute Truth as Existing Without Reference to Relations Necessity of Considering Methods of Operation Shown by What Men Find When They Think That They Have Obtained Truth Meanings of the Adjective True Further Meanings Its Meanings When Material or Bodily Conditions Are Compared With Mental or Spiritual Its Meanings When Applied to Language The False in Language Is a Want of Conformity to a Method of Operation in a Mental Process Summary of the Meanings of the Word True Of the Word Truth 9 zl xii CONTENTS CHAPTER II THE NATURE OF TRUTH AS INDICATED BY WHAT MEN DO WHEN RECEIVING AND IMPARTING ITS INFLUENCE PAGE Objections to the View Presented in the First Chapter Truth, as Exprest in Language, Should Not Be Confounded with the Formula ; Illustrated from Methods of Interpreting the Bible Its History Noteworthy for the Methods of Life Which It Illustrates Its Prophecies Valuable for Their Fulfilment Not Only, but Applicability to Laws Operating Everywhere Con- firmation of This Principle of Interpretation of the Bible in Its Explanations Its Arguments Its Injunctions Real Meaning Lost When Truth Is Supposed to Be Conformed to Formulae Alone, and Not Also to Methods of Operation The Use of the Word Truth in the Bible Illustrations Inferences Truth Is Perceived in the Process of Searching for It Supposing Change Inconsistent with Absoluteness in Truth Is a Source of Both Infidelity and Bigotry Right Views of Truth as a Corrective of These The Truth in Revealed and Natural Religion Connected with a Conception of Method One Recog- nizing This May Be a Friend to Both Progress and Perma- nenceInferences from the View Here Presented A Few Forms in Space May Reveal Universal Methods One Mind May Represent God And One Life, if Full of Love The Mis- sion of the Friend Comfort in This Suggestion The Changes of a Few Moments May Reveal Universal Methods Child or Man with Short or Long Life May Both Have Experience of Them.. 26 1 CHAPTER III THE MIND'S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SPIRITUAL OR IN- SPIRATIONAL, AS CONTRASTED WITH MATERIAL, INFLUENCES To What Men Refer When Using the Term Inspiration When Using the Term Spiritual Considered an Influence Not Trace- able to the Conscious Sphere of the Mind But Traceable to or Through an Inner or Subconscious Sphere Proofs of the Existence of This Sphere, as in Memory, Fright, Fever, Hyp- notismSubconscious Philosophical and Mathematical Intel- lectionResulting from Previous Conscious Action, as in CONTENTS xiii PAGE Skill Not Resulting from Previous Conscious Action : Co- burn, Mozart, Blind Tom Subconscious Diagnosis of Disease at a Distance Subconscious Apprehension of Distant Occur- rencesBoth in Space and Time Mind-Reading Automatic Writing Apparitions Connection Between Such Facts and Belief in a Future State of Rewards and Punishments Often Attributed to Natural Material Causes Should Be Attrib- uted to Influences from Nature's Occult Side Shown in Susceptibility of the Primitive, Uneducated Man to Such In- fluences Instinct and Reason Instinctive and Rational In- stinctive and Religious Instinctive and Animal Story of the Fall The Mental Actions of Animals Of Negroes, In- dians, and Those Subject to Hallucinations, with Inferences Therefrom Like Inferences with Reference to the Origin of Religion Drawn from Primitive Religious Customs With Growth of Intelligence, Physical Occult Manifestations Are Considered Less Important Than Verbal But the Verbal Con- tinue to Be Associated with Subconscious Intellection. . , 51 CHAPTER IV THE MIND'S CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CONSCIOUS INTEL- LECTION TO THAT WHICH IS RECEIVED THROUGH THE SUBCONSCIOUS Subconscious and Conscious Influences Manifested in All Forms of Intellection Value of That Obtainable from the Former Depends on the Character of That Given by the Latter Ob- ligation of an Inspired Man to Interpret Promptings from the Subconscious by His Conscious Intellection Fulfilment of This Obligation Characteristic of Writers Consequent In- tellectual Progress Connected with This Form of Inspired Communication Recognizing Relationship of Christian to Other Forms of Inspiration Does Not Impair the Authen- ticity and Authority of the Christian Scriptures Or Lessen One's Veneration for Them Nor Does the Acknowledgment That Signs and Wonders Are Wrought in Other Religions The Testimony of the Christian Scriptures Upon This Subject Rationality of the Scriptural Test as Applied to Spiritism Hudson's Theory Importance of Investigating Spiritism The Dangers Attendant Upon Accepting, Without Thinking, Its So-called Revelations Also Threaten Those Accepting, in the Same Way, Revelation in Any Other Form xiv CONTENTS 4 CHAPTER Y THE NECESSARILY SUGGESTIVE CHARACTER OF IN- SPIRED OR REVEALED TRUTH PAGE Ambiguity and Indefiniteness Seem Characteristic of the Com- munications Received Through Inspiration and Revelation The Method of Action of the Inner Sphere of the Mind May Render This Result Necessary We Can Study This Method Through the Analogous Methods of Hypnotism Limitations of This Study Hypnotism Influences Through Suggestion, Which Leaves Expression Free and, When Influencing Differ- ent Minds, Different The Bearing of This Argument Analo- gies from Hypnotism May Explain Many Things Assigned to Spiritual Influence in the Scriptures This Is so of Conver- sion Of Atonement, of Spiritual Unity, of Creation, of Proba- tion, of Life After Death Suggestive Revelation May Be More Influential Than Dictatorial Additional Evidence of This Suggestive Control in Religion Conforms to Divine Control as Manifested in External Nature Suggestive Nature of Re- vealed Truth Already Widely Acknowledged by Christians This Acknowledgment Not Antagonistic to Continued Study of the Scriptures Illustration of the Way in Which the Same Inspired Truth May Be Exprest in Different Forms Different Legends in Different Religions May Give Expression to the Same Fundamental Truth Influence of This Fact Upon Fu- ture Theologians 107 CHAPTER VI SIGNIFICANCE AND FORM IN SUGGESTED TRUTH A Conception Impressing Our Minds Is Not Identical with a Word Expressing It The Latter Is a Result of Materializing the Conception Use of Materialized Conceptions by Man and by the Creator Universal;; Recognition of This Use Ap- propriateness of Its Use in Inspiration and Revelation How This Fact Modifies Certain Current Conceptions Differences Between Scientific and Religious Truth Application to Statements in the Bible Rendering These Conformable to Reason And to Philanthropy Degrees of the Credibility of the Influence Occultly Exerted Through the Subconscious Depends Upon the Truthfulness of the Suggestion Given It as a Premise The Truthfulness of This Suggestion and of Its Results Must be Determined by the Action of Some Con- CONTENTS xv PAGE scions Mind Whose Conscious Mind This Is It Is a Mind In- fluenced by Heredity and Environment This Explains the Development of the Truth as Revealed in the Bible The Ex- planation Accords with Biblical Statements With General Opinion This Conception Does Not Render Biblical Truth Less Determinant 134 CHAPTER VII THE RATIONAL METHOD OF INTERPRETING BIBLICAL STATEMENTS Theories of Modern Biblical Critics How to Reconcile with the Conception of Inspiration the Conception That Parts of the Bible Are Compiled from Other Writers Scriptural Warrants for Testing by the Conscious Mind the Truth Coming Through the Subconscious The Test Afforded by the Results of Previ- [pus Information Of Intuitive Insight Of Logical Inference Application of Faith to Matters Beyond the Reach of Con- scious Information, Intuition, or Inference 158 * CHAPTER VIII ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST INTERPRETING BIB- LICAL STATEMENTS AS SUGGESTIVE AND NOT DICTATORIAL The View Presented in the Preceding Chapter Seems to Subject the Truth of God to the Judgment of Man This Method in Analogy with Other Ways in Which Man is Expected to In- terpret Divine Truth Nature and Experience Influence Him so as to Cultivate His Power of Acting Rationally Effect of This Upon the Young We Should Expect the Same Method to Be Pursued in Revelation: Impossibility of Any Other Method Except the Suggestive in Communicating Spiritual Truth The Error of Interpreting the Scriptures Literally 169 * CHAPTER IX CHRISTIAN DOGMATISM AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER- ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE Conclusions Reached in Preceding Chapter Confirmation of These Afforded by the Scriptures These Conclusions Are Not Ac- cepted by Christians in General Deleterious Effects of This xvi CONTENTS PAGE Manifested in Diminished Attendance Upon Church Services The Church Should Remedy This Condition Origin of Dog- matism, Intolerance, and the Dark Ages Dogmatism and In- tolerance as Irrational as Uncharitable Creeds Should Not Be Made a Test of Christian Character Applied to the Doc- trine of Inspiration Injurious Effects of Applying Such a Test in Connection with This Doctrine Same Principle Ex- emplified with Reference to the Doctrine of the Personality of God The Trinity The ImmaculateiConception and Incarna- tionThe Method of Salvation The Problem in Salvation Its Solution in the Work of the Christr How Dogmatism, Tho Based Upon This Solution, Does Harm Not Only Among Christians, but Non-Christians, as Buddhists and Moham- medans Same Principle Applied to Doctrine of Eternal Pun- ishmentsCertainty with Reference to Spiritual Truth Not Justifiable Illustration of the Practical Evils of This Atti- tude. . . 178 CHAPTER X THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER- ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE The Church Not an End but a Means The Church Intended to Influence Opinion, Inclination, and Conduct Opinion Most Influenced Not by Authority, but by Thought Illustrations from History Same Principle Applied to the Influence Ex- erted Upon Belief by the Numbers Attending Any One Church Or Exerted Upon Expressions of Belief External Unity of the Church May Be Detrimental to Influence of Thought as Thought Influence of Thought as Thought, Aside from the Influence of Authority Upon Christian Opinion And Upon Conduct Reasons for This The Conception of the Church Which Harmonizes with the Testimony Afforded by Historic Christianity By the Primitive Church Enforced Unity of the Church Is Not the Spiritual Unity of Christians Nor Is It Made Prominent Where the Church Is Growing The Church as Influencing Inclinations Through Rites or Rituals Wor- ship Can Not Be Exprest Through Argumentative or Dog- matic Language Neglect of This Principle in English Cathe- dralsIn Assemblies of Those of Divergent Views Principle Applied to Hymns To Prayers and Repetitions of Creeds The Church in Influencing Conduct Is Sometimes Dictatorial, Sometimes Prohibitive, but Usually Negative The Chris- CONTENTS xvii PAGE tianity of the Christ Is Positive The Christian Must Do More Than Seek His Own Salvation Development in the Church of the Feeling of Individual Responsibility Further Develop- ments to Be Expected in the Future These Theories Not Due to Lack of Appreciation of the Work of the Church 21