RELIGION AND MORALITY 137
Religion is the relation in which a man acknowledges himself to stand towards the infinite universe around him^ or towards its source and first cause ; and a rational man must have some relation to them.
But you will, perhaps, say that to define man's rela- tion to the universe is not the affair of reliirion, but of philosopliy, or of science in general, if one includes philosophy as part of science. I do not think so. On the contrary, I think that the supposition that science in its widest sense, including philosopliy as part of it, can define man's relation to the universe is quite erroneous, and is the chief cause of the confusion con- cerning religion, science, and morality, which prevails among the cultured classes of our society.
Science, including philosophy, cannot define man's relation to the infinite universe or its source, were it only for this reason — that before any philosoj)liy or science could arise, that must already have existed without which no activity of tli ought, nor relation of any kind between man and the universe, is possible.
As a man cannot by any possible motion discover in which direction he ouglit to move, yet every movement is necessarily performed in some direction, so also is it impossible by mental effort at i)hilosophy or science to discover the direction in which such efforts should be performed ; but all mental effort is necessarily per- formed in some direction that has been predetermined for it. And it is religion that always indicates this direction for all mental work. All known philosophers, from Plato to Schopenhauer, have always and inevitably followed a direction given them by religion. The philosophy of Plato and his followers was a pagan philosophy, which examined the means of obtaining the greatest possible well-being for separate individuals, and for an association of individuals in a State. The Church- Christian philosophy of the Middle Aeres, proceeding from a similar pagan conception of life, investigated ways of obtaining salvation for the individual — that is, ways of obtaining the greatest personal welfare in a
