Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/578

LEFT KELIGION 492 REMBRANDT which are mainly the products of im- agination and doctrines of reflection. The Psychology of Religion, the His- tory of Religions, and Comparative The- ology are clearly distinct, and ought not to be confounded. At the same time they are closely connected. They agree in that they are alike occupied with religion as an empirical fact. Hence they may be regarded as parts of a comprehensive science, to which it might be well to con- fine the designation "Science of Re- ligions," instead of using it in the vague and ambiguous way which is so common. Thus understood, the Science of Religions may be said to deal with religion as a phenomena of experience, whether out- wardly manifested in history or inwardly realized in consciousness; to seek to de- scribe and explain religious experience so far as it can be described and explained without transcending the religious ex- perience itself. Its students have only to ascertain, analyze, explain, and ex- hibit experienced fact. Were religion a physical fact, to study it merely as a fact would be enough. The astronomer, the naturalist, the chemist have no need to judge their facts; they have only to descriTC them, analjTze them, and deter- mine their relations. But it is other^v-ise with the students of religion, of moral- ity, of art, of reasoning. They soon come to a point where they must be- come judges of the phenomena and pronounce on their truth and worth. Ex- perience in the physical sphere is experi- ence and nothing more; experience ia the spiritual sphere is very often expe- rience of what is irreverent and impious, immoral and vicious, ugly and erroneous, foolish or insane. Has the mind simply to describe and analyze, accept, and be content with such experience? Even the logician and the aesthetician will answer in the negative, will claim to judge their facts as conforming to or contravening the laws of truth and the ideals of art. Still more decidedly must the moralist and the student of religion so answer. Religion, then, is not completely studied when it is only studied historically. Hence it must be^ dealt with by other sciences or disciplines than those which are merely historical. What these are, and how they are related to religion, the writer has elsewhere endeavored to show. All the particular theological sciences or disciplines treat of particular aspects of religion or of religion in particular ways. Their relationships to one an- other can only be determined by their relationship to it. They can only be unified and co-ordinated in a truly or- ganic manner by their due reference to it. When religion is studied not merely in particular aspects and ways, but in its •unity and entirety, with a view to its comprehension in its essence and all essential relations, it is the object of the Philosophy of Religion. Though a distinct and essential department of philosophy, and the highest and most comprehensive theological science, the philosophy of religion could only appear in an independent and appropriate form when both philosophy and theology were highly developed. It is, therefore, of comparatively recent origin, and indeed was chiefly cultivated in Germany during the 19th century. RELIQUARY, a depository for a relic or relics; a casket or case in which relics are kept, R:^AINDER, in law, an estate in remamder may be defined to be an estate limited to take effect and be enjoyed after another estate is determined. Thus if a man seized in fee simple grants lands to A for 20 years, or other period, and, after the determination of the said term, then to B and his heirs forever, here A is tenant for years, with remainder to B, since an estate for years is created out of the fee, and given to A, and the resi- due or remainder to B. Also in publish- ing, an edition, the sale of which has practically ceased, and which is cleared by the trade at a reduced price. REMBRANDT, VAN RYN, one of the most celebrated painters and engravers of the Dutch school; born in Leyden, VAN RYN REMBRANDT Holland, July 15, 1606. He acquired his art from several masters at Amsterdam, and early in life grew famous. Rem- brandt was master of all that relates to coloring, distribution of light and shade, and composition. His etchings have