Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/219

THE FUNCTION OF RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION. 203 ethical. The space at my command precludes the possi- bility of dealing adequately with such a statement, but I think the reader will agree that we find ourselves led to hold that the religious instinct, if we allow ourselves to be guided by it, compels us to act out the best that is in us impulsively, without the necessity of waiting for the slow processes of argument and conviction. It does not in itself perfect our moral code, that is a matter of individual development and individual effort ; but it does serve the purpose of giving to us an instinctive tendency to express and to strengthen the best that is ours by Nature's gift, as our moral life unfolds. This it is that a man gains when he falls under the sway of the religious instinct : a tendency has arisen within him to give his higher instincts full play, a tendency which itself has become instinctive.