Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/234

 224 5. E. Baldwin Thus far in tlie history of the earth, the mass of mankind have ever sought to regulate their conduct by their desires. Civiliza- tion has somewhat modified their desires. It has given them new forms, inspired them by new influences, turned them in new direc- tions, subjected them to certain conventions ; but individual desires are still what press forward as the natural motive-forces in and of organized society. Nevertheless they have seldom for any long period ruled the course of society. There has been a minority of the people, actuated by counter-forces of an intensive character and power, sufficient to make it stronger than the majority in so far as to beat down mere desire and replace it by some theory which all recognize as more noble and worthy. Philosophers have led one wing of this minority ; religionists the other. And which has proved the stronger force, religion or philosophy? Which appeals to the most minds? Which appeals to the most hearts? To the heart, religion alone. The morals, the ideals of the philosopher are powerless with the multi- tude unless touched by the fire of emotion and quickened by that faith in the unseen which turns human things into divine things. The philosophic thought of Eastern literature is also religious. The efifect of this literature on the Western mind has become, during the last half-century, quite considerable. It has reinforced the Emersonian school and given new recognition to reverence for the mysterious in the order of the universe. Religion, being man's conception of what is fit for a superhuman or divine order of things, must vary in form to correspond with differences in human insight and knowledge. Following the gen- eral law for all that lives, formulated by Spencer and Darwin, it everywhere proceeds in its manifestations from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, and must continue in this course. It is not that the ultimate object of search changes. The attitudes and capacities of the observers change. If any particular religion ever overspreads the earth and gains universal acceptance, it will gain it everywhere by taking its color, like the chameleon, from the soil, or perhaps, as to-day with the Christian religion, assuming many colors on the same soil. Onl- the motive and the general moral product will be cosmic. Men owe to their mothers their first introduction to the world of the mind and the spirit. Women are, by their inherent nature, religious beings. Equality of civil rights before the law will never disturb the poise of that nature. It is never satisfied to be en-