The Varieties of Religious Experience — William James

p. 334most warmly those fruits of piety in others which taste most good and prove most nourishing to Imn. I am well aware of how anarchic much of what I say may sound. Expressing myself thus abstractly and briefly, I may seem to despair of the very notion of truth. But I beseech you to reserve your judgment until we see it applied to the details which lie before us.

I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can . attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unim-/ provable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instabiKty. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Eather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

That we can gain more and more of it by moving always in the right direction, I believe as much as any one, and I hope to bring you all to my way of thinkinsf before the termination of these lectures. Till then, do not, I pray you, harden your minds irrevocably against the empiricism which I profess. I will waste no more words, then, in abstract justification of my method, but seek immediately to use it upon the facts.

In critically judging of the value of religious phenomena, it is very important to insist on the distinction between religion as an individual personal function, and religion as an institutional, corporate, or tribal product. I drew this distinction, you may remember, in my second lecture. The word ' religion,' as ordinarily used, is equivocal.

A survey of history shows us that, as a rule, religious geniuses attract disciples, and produce groups of sympathizers. When these groups get strong enough to * organize ' themselves, they become ecclesiastical institu2p. 335tions with corporate ambitions of their own.

The spirit ^ ow-o of politics and the lust of dogmatic rule are then apt to j .1 enter and to contaminate the originally innocent thing ; ^ ' ^ so that when we hear the word ' reHgion ' nowadays, we " think inevitably of some ^ church ' or other ; and to some (a^-^- persons the word ^ church ' suggests so much hypocrisy and tyranny and meanness and tenacity of superstition that in a wholesale undiscerning way they glory in saying that they are ^ down * on religion altogether.

Even we who belong to churches do not exempt other churches than our own from the general condemnation. But in this course of lectures ecclesiastical institutions hardly concern us at all. The religious experience which we are studying is that which lives itself out within the private breast. First-hand individual experience of this kind has always appeared as a heretical sort of innovation to those who witnessed its birth.

Naked comes it into the world and lonely ; and it has always, for a time at least, driven him who had it into the wilderness, often ^ ,^ into the literal wilderness out of doors, where the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, St. Francis, George Fox, and so ^ ', ^<S many others had to go.

George Fox expresses well this isolation ; and I can do no better at this point than read to you a page from his Journal, referring to the period of his youth when religion began to ferment within him seriously.

" I fasted much," Fox says, " walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible, and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places until night came on ; and frequently in the night walked mournfully about by myself; for I was a man of sorrows in the time of the first workings of the Lord in me. " During all this time I was never joined in profession of religion with any, but gave up myself to the Lord, having for3p. 336saken all evil company, taking leave of father and mother, and all other relations, and traveled up and down as a stranger on the earth, which way the Lord inclined my heart ; taking a chamber to myself in the town where I came, and tarrying sometimes more, sometimes less in a place : for I durst not stay long in a place, being afraid both of professor and profane, lest, being a tender young man, I should be hurt by conversing much with either.

For which reason I kept much as a stranger, seeking heavenly wisdom and getting knowledge from the Lord ; and was brought off from outward things, to rely on the Lord alone. As I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people ; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my '' condition.

And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do ; then, oh then, I heard a voice which said, ' There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition. When I heard it, my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition.

I had not fellowship with any people, priests, nor professors, nor any sort of separated people. I was afraid of all carnal talk and talkers, for I could see nothing but corruptions. When I was in the deep, under all shut up, I could not believe that I should ever overcome ; my troubles, my sorrows, and my temptations were so great that I often thought I should have despaired, I was so tempted.

But when Christ opened to me how he was tempted by the same devil, and had overcome him, and had bruised his head ; and that through him and his power, life, grace, and spirit, I should overcome also, I had confidence in him. If I had had a king's diet, palace, and attendance, all would have been as nothing; for nothing gave me comfort but the Lord by his power.

I saw professors, priests, and people were whole and at ease in that condition' which was my misery, and they loved that which I would have been rid of. But the Lord did stay my desires upon himself,! and my care was cast upon him alone." ^ * George Fox : Journal, Philadelphia, 1800, pp. 59-61, abridged.