Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/235

 Relioion still the Key to History 225 sphered within itself. It seeks to ally itself with something stronger. It responds readily to the mysterious. In a sense it is true that the life of every man turns on what is to be his relation to some woman. In a much deeper sense is it true that the life of every woman turns on what is to be her relation to some man. If hap- piness of home be denied to a man, he may find, or fancy that he finds, the void filled in the busy world. If it be denied to a woman, she cannot. She feels the void too deep to fill, unless it be by a peace that the world can neither give nor take away. And if hap- piness of home be given to a woman, she is more apt than man to think it but a gift from some higher power. These sentiments that from childhood imbue half the human race, that half instils in childhood into the whole. The first knowl- edge that comes to the babe in arms is that there is a protecting and supporting power, from which he receives everything, and to which he renders nothing but confidence and love. He grows into a child. Other forms rise up around him with which he finds himself in close relation. Motives of conduct are put before him ; duty to parents, among the first. There are few to whom a mother's voice does not suggest a reason for this duty in a divine command. The very oaths the boy will hear uttered upon the street will bear the same message in a different flress. .'V race, as Renan said, lives forever on its recollections of childhood. Impressions of religion then gained are never absolutely eft'aced. I-ike the secret despatch written in lemon-juice, they reap- pear at the touch of fire — in moments of deep feeling and supreme effort. It is by what is done at such moments that battles are won, parliamentary majorities change, dynasties fall. The most uncompromising materialist is seldom without his obli- gations to early impressions for his contentment with his surround- ings. There will be still, though he be not conscious of it, some lingering subjection to their power. .s Dr. I'.arry in his sketch of Renan has said, " the sceptic lives on a capital stored up during the days when he believed. He is a philosopher on half-pay." Religion is a large word. Matthew .Arnold's epigram ex- presses but a half-truth. Religion is morality — the morality of the time and of the race — touched with emotion — the emotion of the human heart. P.ut as emotion is not self-contained, neither is it self-produced. It is a feeling of one towards another or with another, or else it is a feeling inspired by a memory of another or a conception of the ideal. The one is the more passionate: the other is the more profound. Either is a strong spring of action.