Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/360

 natural ethics and by showing to humanity the highest ideal of happiness realizable, excites and shows the means of satisfying the emotional part of man; if, I say, religion is all this, all questions or particular religious professions and their comparative value must resolve themselves into simple problems workable with the help of unprejudiced reason and intelligence. In other words, religion, instead of being a more matter of faith, might well become the solid province of reason, and a science of religion may not be so much a dream as is imagined by persons pledged to certain conclusions. Holding, therefore, these views on the nature of religion, and having at heart the great benefit of a common basis of religion for all men, I would submit the following simple principles for your consideration:

1. Belief in the existence of an ultramaterial principle in nature and in the unity of the all. 2. Belief in reincarnation and salvation by action.

These two principles of a possible universal religion might stand or fall on their merits apart from the consideration of any philosophy or revelation that upholds them. I have every confidence no philosophy would reject them, no science would gainsay them, no system of ethics would deny them, no religion which professes to be philosophic, scientific, or ethical ought to shrink back from them. In them I see the salvation of man and the possibility of that universal love which the world is so much in need of at the present moment.