Page:A Brief History of Modern Philosophy.djvu/309

306 the English school). For the expansive energy which forms the basis of life begets hope and courage and makes possible what would otherwise be impossible. The only sanction which the ethics of the future will require is that of the subjective satisfaction which corresponds to the greatness of the risk (le plaisir de risque).

Guyau likewise bases his philosophy of religion on the impulse of expansion (L'irreligion de l'avenir, 1887). The day of religion is past. Religion consists essentially of man's feeling of fellowship with the personal director of the course of the universe. It finds its characteristic expression in the mythological explanation of nature, in a form of worship with magic rites and in a body of dogmas which are regarded as absolute truths. Religion is in process of complete dissolution in every one of these directions. What is best in religious life will be able to survive; the impulse to transcend the bare facts of experience and to discover a higher unity will not vanish with religion. As a matter of fact this impulse is only now finding room for free development, since the rigid, dogmatic forms no longer impose obstacles. Everyone will express his sense of fellowship with existence—the ideal sociology of existence—in his own way. The disharmonies of the universe will be felt more profoundly than before, but the fundamental note will assume the character of sublimity, and the world will be one of hope and of courage for life and for death.

2. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) builds on the same fundamental principle as Guyau, only that in him the conflict between the poet and the philosopher is even more pronounced than in the case of the Frenchman. Both Guyau and Nietzsche oppose an emphatic affirmative to the negations of pessimism. But whilst Guyau guards