The Contemporary Science Series Psychology OF Religion CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDO'WMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library BL53 .S79 3 1924 031 018 249 olin THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION an ffimpiriral Stuig of ti^e "n \ / / t J 2 ^ -■■'', 1 ■ b^^ '- lL / •"•V k.. - <^^ ^ — ^'""^ '—-:. - ■s. ^ -7- '^. u. ■^■^ "^--^ V f \ \ 1 1 — ' \ LU-i- , 1 1 « « «* !— t i i i ffl » ( -. ^ ^ •§ S:i nj B g S (x. 1^ II ^ « -a ?*S •~ II 30 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION interests us is the variation in the curves. Since nearly all the respondents were above 20 years of age at the time of making the record, the probability is the same that a given conversion would fall in any year up to 20. If all the cases followed the law of prob- ability, the curve would then be a straight line parallel to the base. But the dice seem _t o be lo aded ; that is, there seem to~bT^termining elements that make the numbers accumulate in certain years. The value of the curves, consequently, lies in their irregularity. The number of cases plotted in the figure is 254 females and 235 males. This is the number which may be regarded as fairly representative in regard to denomination. It omits from the 1265 cases the J'j^ male Methodists of the Drew Theological Alumni. In order that the curves for females and males might be compared with each other and, at the same time, preserve their peculiarities, they were both reduced to the same scale, for which the basis of 300 was arbitrarily chosen. There are certain peculiarities of the curves which deserve especial attention. Curve F. for females virtually begins at 10 and rises suddenly and rapidly to 13, falls abruptly to 15, culminates at 16, at which year alone occur 40 of the 300 cases ; there is a drop again at 17, a rise at 18, and then a gradual decline into the 20's. The three peaks at 13, 16 and 18 are worthy of notice. Curve M., for males, really begins at 9 ; it rises irregularly to 12, drops at 13, rises suddenly to 16, where it culminates, falls slowly to 19, and then rapidly into the 2o's. There are here, also, three peaks, at 12, 16 and 19. In comparing the two curves we should notice that the centre of gravity of F. is earlier than that of M. ; that each has three peaks ; that the first and third peaks contradict each other in the two curves, i.e., if we turn one curve on the 16 year line as an axis it will practically coincide with the other, although it should be noticed that the enlargement at 13 is larger than the THE AGE OF CONVERSION 31 ./ middle peak in curve F. It will become evident later that the main features of the curves are, perhaps, more than accidental. Now, if we plot the curve for the T]6 cases of conver- sion from the Drew Theological Alumni record, we shall have another approximation of the law of distri- bution of conversions for males. Curve M.E. in Figure 2 is the curve their ages form. It is based on enough cases to make it good for Methodist theological students. It may not be entirely representative of the sex, as it is the record of persons presumably of a specific kind of early training, and also of persons afterwards theologically inclined. Theyoungestgraduatesfrom the seminary were . 20 years of age ; only a very few were below 25 ; nearly all were between 25 and 40, with the prevailing age centering about 30. The probability is the same that a given conversion should occur in any year up to 20, so that the curve is reliable up to that year, and pretty good as far as it goes. For the purpose of comparing this with the more general group of males, curve M. of Figure i is reduced to the same scale as that of M.E., 800 being chosen as the common basis, and is shown in in. of Figure 2. We see at a glance that the two curves have considerable likeness. They both have three bulges at 12 and 16, and a later year — the third bulge in M.E. is later than that in m., and the one at 12 is more prominent with the Methodists. The average age of the two groups happens to be exactly the same, 16.4 years. The larger number at 12 in M.E. offset the later ones in the third enlargement. I am inclined to think now, in revising and re-writing the study, that both features are to be explained by the same circumstance, namely, the greater tendency of the Methodists to look on conversion as a definite and necessary step in religious growth. The ideal meets a / readier response, perhaps, in the earlier impressionable years, and a postponement in the later years until it can be fully realised. Although M.E. represents a special group of persons, it furnishes the valuable 32 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION THE AGE OF CONVERSION 33 suggestion that the peculiarities of the general curve for males are not due to chance. Before looking for the causes underlying the variations in the curves, let us assure ourselves still further.if possible, that the irregularities are not accidental. We may do this by separating all the cases into various groups, as deter- mined by the character of the respondents, or the cir- cumstances under which the statistics were gathered, and seeing what the groups separately show. In so far as there is uniformity in the various groups which composethe general curves, the evidence is heightened that their character is determined by certain laws of growth, and not by chance coincidences. In Table I. the cases are thrown into the several indicated groups. The rows of figures show the number of conversions in the various groups occurring each year, from 9 to 25 inclusive. The larger numbers in each group are in bold type to assist the eye in gathering up- the general significance of the figures. It is evident at a glance that there is remarkable similarity in the different Age— 9 lo II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Groups of Cases. f ^' From old Study 1 . r 4 n 16 16 9 3 15 5 2 I 000 2. From W.CT.U.'s. 1 5 6 7 13 9 12 16 7 10 6 10 I Si 3- FromM.E.'s . I 047 12 65885 2 6 3 2 2 T 4- Other churches 3 488999 16 48 6 5 t I 2 2 .s. Revival cases . 1 3 7 10 7 3 I 11 I I I 020 6. Not revival . o 155672455 2 oil I I ^ 7- Total Females 5 7 20 26 31 25 17 34 15 21 10 II 6 3 I 4 5 ) 8. From old study I 123349325 5 100 9- Amer. soldiers o 3 2 6 3 8 14 18 16 15 9 664 2 ^ 4 10. Drew Theol. M.E.'s . 14 19 30 51 45 64 60 89 88 72 56 48 39 25 16 8 7 Ji II. Other Meth.'s I 5 2 2 5 9 12 17 10 II 5 4 7 I z I ^ s 12. Other churches c S 7 2 5 9 12 14 10 10 5 r 4 2 2 I n- Revival case? I I 6 6 6 9 14 18 13 13 8 3 6 3 I 3 3 14. Not revival . o 208169556 9 4 3 I 3 1 IS- Total Males . 15 27 38 64 56 85 8912111445 77 58 47 31 23 II 12 Age— 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Table I. — Showing the number of conversions which occur each year in several groups of persons. r Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page 44 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION — the last following by a year or so. Some aspect o{ pubescence may conceivably underlie the whole series of changes during adolescence. Even if we choose the one aspect of it for each sex, viz., the one on which our statistics are based, we find a far-reaching sug- gestion growing out of an analysis of the individual records. If we arrange the conversions in groups ac- cording as they came the same year as puberty, one to six years earlier, or one to six years later, we have the series shown in Table V. If the two events were so related that one is conditioned by the other, we should say, at first thought, that the larger numbers in both series ought to fall in the column marked the ' same year,' and gradually thin out towards the ends of the series. This would be the arrangement if the two Years earlier or laler Females Males . Conversion Earlier than Puberty. 6543 Same Year. I 6 S 10 6479 16 9 Conversion Later than Puberty. 123456 14 II 13 10 5 8 16 16 10 3 7 2 Table V. — Showing by how inzich conversion precedes or follows pitberly. {Conversions occurring laler than 1^ years, and differences exceeding 6 years omitted. ) phenomena were causally related, but conversions were made to come earlier or later than puberty through accidental influences in the individual's surroundings. Although this arrangement does not obtain, we may select a point in each series a little after the ' same year,' which is not. only the highest point in the series, but on each side of which the numbers gradually de- crease. These points would be about one-half year later than the theoretical point of coincidence in the series for females, and about one and one-half years later in that for males. The distribution on each side THE AGE OF CONVERSION 45 of the two points selected is much as it would be if they were predestined to fall at those points, but were scattered by six years on either side through acci- dental influences. In other words, the distribution is much as if conversion were conditioned by puberty, but normally followed it by a year or so, and were free to diverge from it through the action of environ- mental influences. Consequently our law, as stated previously, in regard to the relation of these two phe- nomena, demands revision. We say now, conversion and puberty tend to su^Jenient each other in time rather 1 than to coincide ; but they may, nevertheless, be mutually conditioned. The significance of this law we shall leave until we have the facts of conversion before us. The Third Rise in the Curves. — If the principle stated heretofore is true in regard to the supplemental nature of the physical and spiritual aspects of growth, there may be contained in it a partial explanation of the other rises in the conversion curves. In comparing the curves of Figures i and 3,. it will be noticed that the increment in the conversion curve for males at 12 comes at a relatively dead period in physical growth, between the .two accelerations at 10 and 16. Indeed, the question arises whether we have not here one explanation of the third rise in the conversion curves. The greatest number of conversions comes in the same general period with the rapid bodily transformations. It may be that after there is a lull on the physical side the life forces begin to expend themselves more in-\ tensely in producing psychic results. This seems to ) accord with what we know of growth in general, that in building an organism Nature is now at work on one part and now on another ; that there is about so much energy to be expended, and when it is going to the development of one part, this is done at the expense of the rest.' The third rise in the curves, then, may in- 1 Donaldson's Growth of the Brain, p. 69. Burk, ' Growth of Children in Height and Weight,' American Journal of Psychologi', April 1898, p. 302. 46 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION dicate a definite step in spiritual progress which accompanies intellectual maturity. An analysis of the cases before us will show that in the conversions which occur at the very beginning of adolescence there is more of an emotional disturbance, while the later cases seem to be more mature and to contain more of the element of insight. There are, doubtless, many factors in the explana- tion of any of the phenomena of conversion. The cases themselves s.uggest other causes than the one already given. A few of them mention an impulse to conver- sion at about the beginning of adolescence, which then dropped out of their thought and was revived later. The following are typical : — Y.} i6. 'When 12 I had an impulse to go to the altar with two girl friends, but something kept me back. When 16, in a little meeting, I felt serious. My friend near me wanted me to go to the altar, and I thought on it and went.' ' , F., 16. 'When 12 or 13, at the advice of an old woman, I asked God to take my heart. I did feel very happy ; I never have felt so sincere and earnest and anxious to be good.' (Was confirmed at 16.) F., 17. ' I had made a start at 15 at revival meeting, but did not join church, and let it all pass over. (When 17) I felt the love and mercy of God. After an hour of pleading and prayer I felt relief from my sins.' F., 16. 'I began to feel conviction at 11 years of age.' F., 16. ' I experienced a sort of half conversion two years before.' From these quotations it would appear that there is a normal age for conversion at about the beginning of adolescence. If that is not complete, or is resisted, a relapse follows. Then there is another time of aroused ^activity, from two to four years later. This appears to be a normal ebb and flow of religious interest. ■ F. and M. denote female and male. The numbers indicate the age at the time of conversion. THE AGE OF CONVERSION 47 There are various other causes for the postponement of conversion, as suggested in the following typical instances : — F., 16. ' When I was 10 years old mother died. I lost interest in everything ; I felt dazed and lived in a sort of dream until 16, when I attended revival. I had intense remorse. With tears came relief and joy ; my whole life was changed from that hour.' F,, 17. '(I was carefully trained and taught to pray.) When 14 I had companions who laughed at religion ; I became like them. I often had stings of conscience. (When 17) I attended rrieeting ; I felt that God had forgiven my sins,' F., 18. ' As a child of 9, I was petted and spoiled ; was much with people who cared little for religion. When 18 the downfall and death of a friend I had trusted set me to thinking. I cried to God for mercy and forgiveness.' F., 16. ' My parents were agnostic. I had no Christian influence, but the contrary. I felt the need of religion.' M., 16. ' I was a wild, wicked boy, and my father took pride in my wildness. I had been to an uproarious wedding. When I got home I felt condemned. I had an awful impression that death had come.' M., 18. ' I was not brought up in a religious family. I was the first of my family, except mother, to become a Christian.' F., 17. 'I had made many resolutions to be a Christian, but pride kept me from telling it.J F,, 18. ' I had suffered for years wanting to be a Christian, and not knowing how.' M., 19. ' From earliest boyhood I had longed to be a Christian. I had lived a careful, good life, in the hope of being accepted of God because I refrained from evil' F., 16. ' From 10 to 16 I only cared to have a good time, and let myself drift along.' M., 18. ' I called myself morally upright, never be- lieving what I said exactly.' 48 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION In these quotations we see several causes reflected for the later increments in the curves : through some acci- dent, or some defect in early training, the person is not sufficiently developed to respond to spiritual influ- ences at the first normal period ; some trait of char- acter, such as reserve, pride or wilfulness, has prevented a response to the first impulse. If we add to these an intellectual ripening for religious insight and a natural ebb and flow of religi6us interest, we have a partial description of the processes which cause the later en- largements of the curves. CHAPTER IV THE MOTIVES AND FORCES LEADING TO CONVERSION A STUDY of the motives and forces which lead to religious awakening may cast a little light ahead on the nature of conversion. It shows us something of the forces that are at work in the religious life, their relative prominence, and how they vary with age and sex. Furthermore, it may furnish some scientific and educational suggestions of value. The method of studying the motives and forces was to group them according to their likenesses and differ- ences. They seem to fall naturally into eight groups — fears, other self-regarding motiveis, altruistic motives, / following out a moral ideal, remorse and conviction for , sin, response to teaching, example and imitation, urging and other forms of social pressure. The naming of the groups is inadequate ; their character will be better ap- preciated by the representative instances given below : — 1. Fears. — F., 12. ' The terrors of hell were dwelt on at revival until I became so scared I cried.' F., 14. ' Had I died I had no hope, only eternal loss.' M., 15. ' I feared God's punishrnent' M., 22. ' I had fear of death and waking up in ^aAtV in many instances fears were declared to be entirely absent, as in this : M., 18. ' Two ministers told me I'd go to hell if I didn't make a stand. I said I'd never be a Christian to dodge hell.' 2. Other self-regarding motives. — F., 17. ' I wanted the approval of others.' F., 11. 'Father had died and I thought I would get to meet him.' M., 7. ' Ambition D 50 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of a refined sort influenced me.' M., i8. ' I thought the man who is best is strongest and happiest.' 3. Altruistic motives. — M., 18. ' I wanted to exert the right influence over my pupils at school.' F., 16. ' I felt I must be better and do more good in the world.' R, 19. ' The wish to please my minister counteracted my negative attitude.' F., — . ' It was love for God who had done so much for me.' 4. Following out a moral ideal. — M., 14. ' I was moved by a feeling of duty.' M., 16. ' I wanted to be good and to control my anger and passions.' F., 17. ' I had an inner conviction that it was a good thing to do.' M., 15. ' I had a yearning for a higher ideal of life.' F., 13. 'It was spontaneous awakening to a divine impulse.' Groups 3 and 4 run into each other. The sense of duty which was not referred objectively is included in the latter. 5. Remorse and conviction for sin. — F., 17. 'Remorse for past conduct was my chief motive.' M., 18. 'I was thoroughly convicted of sin.' F., 14. ' My sins were very plain to me. I thought myself the greatest sinner in the world.' F., 18. 'The downfall and death of a friend I had trusted set me to thinking ; I wondered if I were not worse than she.' 6. Response to teaching. — F., 11. 'Mother talked to me and made the way of salvation plain.' F., — . ' A sermon that seemed just meant for me set me to thinking.' M., 23. ' The teaching of Christ appealed strongly to my reason and judgment.' Evangelical sermons described as emotional are included in group 8 below. 7. Example and imitation. — M., 15. 'It began largely as imitation.' F., 16. ' I saw so many becoming good that I just had to become a Christian.' F., 13. ' For the first time I came in contact with a Christian family. Their influence induced me to become a Christian.' M., 16. ' I thought only the power of religion could make me live such a life as brother's.' This group ranges from mere imitation to sympathy MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 51 with a great personality, where it closely approaches group 4. 8. Urging, and social pleasure.— M., i 5. ' The girls coaxed me at school. Estimable ladies and deacons gathered around me and urged me to flee from the wrath to come.' F., 13. 'I took the course pointed out at the time.' R, 14. 'A pleading word from my teacher helped me.' Imitation and social pressure are frequently so intense that the individuality of the subject is entirely lost. M., — . ' It seems to me now hypnotic' F., 16. 'The sermon moved me; they sang. Before I realised what had happened, I was kneeling at the" altar rail. I never knew what was said to me.' In such cases, there is one of two,j:esults ; either the forced position is accepted as the right one, / or the person- rebels when partial independence is gained. The former are included in this study. The cases in which the person appeared entirely to lose his or her individuality, and immediately to react against a forced conformity, demand consideration by them- selves, and are treated in a separate chapter. M., 50. ' It was the buoyancy of the atmosphere that made me / go forward ; I had nothing to do with it. I could have done the same thing every week without any change in my character.' I. The Relative Prominence of the Different Motives ' Forces. — Table VI. shows the relative prominence of the motives and forces illustrated above, as deter- mined by the frequency with which each was named by the subjects. The evaluation was made in three ways — («) Taking only the motives mentioned as the most prominent ones ; {U) trying to form an estimate of the value of all the motives wherever mentioned, by dupli- cating those apparently very prominent ; (c) simply counting the frequency of all the motives mentioned. The first method made the self-regarding motives about one-third more prominent than the other two ways, and subtracted from the moral-ideal class. The last two methods gave nearly the same results. Table VI. is the 52 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION result of the third method. For the purpose of com- paring the columns among themselves, the percentages are so reduced that each column foots up lOO ; that is, they show the relative and not the absolute prominence of the motives and forces. For example, among the males, fears as motives to conversion are mentioned twice as often as other self-regarding motives. Motives and Forcks Present at Conversion. Females. Mules. Both Females and Males. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. I. Fear of Death or Hell 14 14 14 2. Other Self- Regarding Motives . 5 7 6 3. Altruistic Motives .... 6 4 5 4. Following out a Moral Ideal 15 20 17 5. Remorse, Conviction for Sin, etc. IS 18 16 6. Response to Teaching n 8 10 7. Example, Imitation, etc. . H 12 13 8. Social Pressure, Urging, etc. 20 17 19 Sum of I and 2 — Self- Regarding Motives . 19 21 20 Sum of 3 and 4 — Other-Regarding and Ideal Motives 21 24 22 Sum of I to 5— Subjective Forces . 55 63 58 Sum of 6 to 8 — Objective Forces . 45 37 42 T.\BLE VI. — Showing the relative frequency oj certain motives and forces which lead to conversion. There are a few points in the table which deserve attention. The altruistic motives and the response to a moral ideal form a group which may be called dis- tinctively n^oral motives. The sum is about the same as that of all the ' self-re gardin g motivejNtaken together. Conviction for sin is about as prominent as response to a moral ideal. Although the motives present before conversion perhaps show nothing as to the nature of the finished spiritual product, it is significant that at this time persons are not only driven by egoistic and instinctive feelings, but are drawn by ideal con- siderations. (I A- ■.-v.ST^-.'K, MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 53 Still we should notice how much more important are those forces which seem to be racial and instinctive than the others. In the first place, response to teaching and altruistic motives are the least prominent of all, while fear of death and hell, conviction for sin, imitation and social pressure are the most frequent. Fears are a large factor. Hope of heaven is nearly absent. Fears appear to be present about fifteen times as often as hope. Only 5 per cent, are altruistic motives ; and if we select from these the ones who mention love of God or Christ as leading them to a higher life, we find only 2 per cent. This is significant in view of the fact that love of God is a point of great emphasis in Christian ethics. It is of interest to compare fear of hell and conviction for sin, which are prominent, with hope of heaven and love of Christ and God, which are almost absent. These four are all central in Christian theology, and might be supposed to be about equal as religious incentives. If we combine this with the fact that response to teaching represents only 10 per cent, of all the forces, and that, of the objective forces, imitation and social pressure are largest, we begin to see what a small part rational considerations play in conversion as compared with in- stinctive. Subjective forces are about one and one-half times more frequent than external forces. 2. Comparison of Males and Females. — Fear of death and hell is about equally present among males and females. The altruistic motives are greater among females. The other three subjective forces — other self- regarding motives, response to a moral ideal, and con- viction for sin — are more prominent among males, while the three groups of objective forces predominate among females. The inference seems to be that males arei controlled more from within, while the females are coft-\ trolled more from without. 3. The Revival Cases Compared with the Others. — It is of value to compare the forces which lead to con- version among persons who are influenced by the more vigorous methods of revivals, and those who are con- 54 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION verted while alone or in the quieter surroundings of a regular church service. This is shown in Table VII. There were no additional differences between men and women in the new classification of sufficient importance to warrant keeping the sexes separate. Both Female5 and Males. Motives and Forces present at Conversion. Revival. Non-Revival. I. Fear of Death and Hell . 14 13 2. Other Self- Regarding Motives 6 5 3. Altruistic Motives 5 7 4. Following out a Moral Ideal . 15 19 5. Remorse, Conviction for Sin, etc. 14 18 6. Response to Teaching . 8 13 7. Example, Imitation 15 . II 8. Social Pressure, etc. 23 14 Sum of I and 2 — Self-Kegarding Motives 20 18 Sum of 3 and 4 — Other-Regarding Motives . 20 26 Sum of I to 5 — Subjective Forces 40 44 Sum of 6 to 8 — Objective Forces 60 56 Table ^TI. — A comparison -of tlie revival and non-revival cases in regard to the vtotives and forces leading to conversion. In comparing the two classes, we notice that imitation and social pressure are, as one would anticipate, greater in the revival cases. Response to teaching and fol- lowing out a moral ideal, on the contrary, are greater among the others. It would seem, consequently, that emotional pressure is exerted at the expense of rational insight. It is an unexpected coincidence that the sense of sin is greater in the non-revival cases. This is especially noteworthy when we consider that revival methods emphasise the fact of sin and the means of escape from it. One element in the explanation pro- bably lies in this, that revivals, by the stimulus of the ensemble, carry persons over the tendency to intro- spection, which results in the sense of unworthiness. MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION SS The other fact which underHes the phenomenon must be that there is a strong bent in human nature for such feehngs. In this connection it should be noticed that fears are about as common in the non-revival group as in the other. This is evidence that the charge often made against revivals, that they stir up unduly the' lower religious incentives, such as fear and the sense of ' sin, is not entirely just. They do not so much awakeiA these highly emotional states as appeal to those instincts^ already at work in consciousness, and which would probably show themselves spontaneously a year or two later. The average age was worked out at which each of the groups of motives occurs as a decisive factor in con- version. The result was that the same motives culmin- ate earlier in the revival cases than in the others, sometimes by as much as two years. For example, the average of the revival conversions in which the sense of sin was mentioned as a motive is 14. i years, as against 1 5 in the non-revival group. That is, the effect of revivals is to hasten somewhat the working of specific motives. 4. The Variation of Motives with Age. — There seems to be a normal age when the different motives should assert themselves. The calculation of the ages of conversions in which the various motives occur shows that the motives tend to arrange themselves in a serial order according to age. The series, from the earliest to the latest, is the following-: — imitation, social pressure,! conviction for sin, fear of death and hell, response to teaching, following out ■ a moral ideal and altruistic motives. In this series those forces which were desig- nated above as racial and instinctive come as a rule earlier. The way in which these sets of motives vary with age is shown in a different way in Figure 4, in which the various subjective influences at work at the time of con- version^are plotted to show their frequency for different years. Curves G, H and I are made on the basis of the ratio in hundredths between the number of times each 56 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION motive was said to be present, and the number of con- versions for each year. Before lo and after 19 the cases are scattering, and the curves too irregular to be of value. The curves throughout are based on too few cases to be interpreted in their finer irregularities. They can be relied on only as showing general tendencies. / G / / / \, 1 -^ / N y / / X 7""^ \^ Ji-^ I. \ J .0^;"-^' / \ / \g i'/ ' 6 / i"~-. \ y \ \ \ Figure 4. — Showing tlie frequency of various motives for different years. (Females.) In earlier years, as shown in the figure, the self-regard- ing motives, of which a large part are fears, are by far in the predominance. They gradually decrease. Curve I., for altruistic and moral-ideal motives, exactly contradicts G. It represents the dawn of the moral consciousness. After 15, moral and other-regarding incentives are pre- sent in almost every case. The sense of sin, curve H, increases up to the early years of adolescence, then MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 57 gradually decreases. It may be connected with the rapid nervous changes of early adolescence, and the corresponding arousal of new, large, confused, organic impressions, the mental unrest and uncertainty, the undefined and unclarified ideas that come at this period when fresh life is making itself felt. The men did not make so full a record of motives as the women. They were also fewer. The curves for males were consequently too vacillating to be of value. The curve for moral motives was very similar to that in the figure, but it was clear that the self-regarding inotives did not decrease as in the case of females. Tf we were to judge the nature of conversion by the forces which lead to it, we should say that conversions during later adolescence represent a different kind of experience from those in the earlier years. CHAPTER V EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION I. Some General Considerations. — Just before the apparent break in the continuity of life called the change of heart, there is usually a mental state known as 'conviction,' or the ' sense of sin.' It is designated in various ways by the respondents, such as the feeling of imperfection, incompleteness, undoneness, unworthiness, and the like. There are many shades of experience in this pre-conversion state. An attempt at a classification of them gave these not very distinct groups : — Conviction for sin proper ; struggle after the new life ; prayer, call- ing on God ; sense of estrangement from God ; doubts and questionings ; tendency to resist conviction ; depres- sion and sadness ; restlessness, anxiety and uncertainty ; helplessness and humility ; earnestness and seriousness ; and the various bodily affections. The result of an analysis of these different shades of experience coincides with the common designation of this pre-conversion state in making the central fact in it all the sense of sin ^ while the other conditions are various manifestations of this, as determined, first, by differences in temperament, and, second, by whether the ideal life or the sinful life is vivid in con- sciousness. In order to make this point clear, we shall begin at the end in picturing this stage in conversion. After the facts were analysed and grouped, it appeared that some such relation existed among them as is shown in Table VIII. Although there may have been a slight straining to make one or two of the groups fit the scheme, they show in general what is true, and the whole diagram 58 EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 59 is approximately correct. If we have it in mind at the beginning, it will facilitate the discussion which follows. The cases arrange themselves pretty naturally in two series. In the first place, they form a series as deter- mined by temperament. There are those at one end of the line who are thrown back on themselves, and who remain helpless, depressed and estranged from God. At the other extreme are those who reach out in the direc- tion of the new life, who strive toward it, and pray toward it, or, if the forces which awaken the impulse toward the higher life have dawned unawares and in Passive Tempera- ment. Intermediate. Active Tempera- ment. Ideal Life Domi- nant in Con- sciousness. Estrangement from God. Doubts and questionings. Desire for a better life. Intermediate. Helplessness, humility. Restlessness, anxiety, un- certainty. Earnestness, seri- ousness, prayer. Sinful Life Domi- nant in Con- sciousness. Depression, sad- ness, meditation. Sense of sin. Tendency to re- sist conviction. Table VIII. — Representing the different ways in which the sense of sin shows itself, as determined by temperament and by whether the ideal life or the sinful life is dominant in consciousness. Spite of themselves, they wilfully .oppose the new in- fluences. Between these two extremes are those who are eminently conscious of sin, but remain poised in a state of restlessness and anxiety, or who vacillate between activity and passivity. This temperamental series, that is, ranges all the way from persons, on the one hand, who are passive, to those, on the other, who are active and positive. The other series is determined by that element of the change of life which is present in consciousness.^ In conversion there always appear to be two things either clearly present or implicit, viz., the old life and the new. 6o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Sometimes one is uppermost in consciousness, sometimes tiie other. Sometimes neither is expHcit, but both seem to be at work simultaneously, though unconsciously to the subject, and to throw the Hfe into distress and unrest. At one extreme in this series are the groups in the lowest line of the scheme above. There is the sense of sin itself; there is the sense of extreme un worthiness, which brings depression and sadness; or if the new life has come unawares, there is still a clinging to the old life, and a tendency to resist the new. In the top line are the groups at the other extreme, in which the new life stands out more or less clearly in consciousness. By these persons the ideal life is pictured either in abstract terms, and there is a striving towards it, or else as God, an ideal which is afar off. Intermediate are the confused organic states known as helplessness and rest- lessness, or as mere undirected nervous tension described as earnestness and seriousness. 2. The Different Types of Pre- Conversion Experiences. — By way of arriving at an accurate conception of the pre-conversion state, we shall let the cases speak for themselves which represent the various types. That which may be called the distinctive type, the sense of sin, is not different in kind from what we have already seen described as a motive to conversion. F., 12. 'I was very wicked. My heart was black.' M., 17. 'I experienced nothing but a great and unaccountable wretchedness.' Such states are often of long duration, and persist without any reason one can ascertain in the person's life or conduct. F., 25. ' I attended church all through my childhood. I had no particularly evil ways. There always seemed to be a drawing of the spirit. . . . I seemed always to be under conviction. Hearing of sermons, religious conversation, anything of that kind, would give me a sense of something I had not. As I had joined church at 8 years, of course I passed for a Chris- tian, and sometimes took part in meetings from a sense of duty. Between these times of conviction the im- pression would wear off, only to be revived at the first EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 6i opportunity. Many times I sought to be saved, but without finding relief.' There are many instances of this sort. In the persistence of such experiences, without an apparent cause, we perhaps see the condition underlying the doctrine of ' original sin.' These experiences shade off into depression and sad- ness, in which both the pain and negative elements are strong. F., 13. 'The thought of my condition was terrible.' F., 16. ' For nights and days my mind was troubled.' M., 16. 'For three months it seemed as if God's spirit had withdrawn from me. There seemed to be a desolation of soul. Fear took hold of me. For a week I was on the border of despair.' Slightly relieved from the pain element, but still negative, are self-distrust and helplessness. F., 23. ' I was discouraged, and felt it was of no use to try.' F., 18. ' I had suffered for years, wanting to be a Christian, and not knowing how.' F., 16. ' I had an awful feeling of helplessness.' The consciousness of God often stands over one, and brings condemnation and a sense of estrangement. M., 19. ' Gazing pensively at the stream which ran through my father's farm, I felt that it was more in harmony with God than I.' M., 15. 'A sense of sinfulness and estrangement from God grew on me daily.' M., 16. ' I felt that God despised me.' M., 16. ' I felt a lack of harmony with the Divine Being, and a sense of continu- ally offending Him.' There is often a feeling of separa- tion from friends. This is doubtless of the same sort, and grows out of the individual's feeling of detachment from the whole. Between the extremes is an indefinable sense of imperfection, a wanting something and not knowing what, which gives rise to the feelings of restlessness and anxiety. M., 12. 'Everything went wrong with me. It seemed like Sunday all the time.' M., 15. 'I was con- stantly worrying.' F., 14. ' I thought something terrible was going to happen.' F., 23. ' I felt wrong, mentally and morally.' F., 17. ' I could not keep my mind on 62 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION anything.' P"., 12. 'I couldn't work.' M., 19. 'I felt a want, an unrest, an aching void the world could never fill.' The general class of more positive expe^'iences, with- out keeping the groups separate, are illustrated in the following : — M., 16. 'Before conversion my mind was in a state of great anxiety. The fleshly mind was all aflame, and my guilt was hideous to me. Because I belonged to church I felt myself a hypocrite. I prayed and studied continually to attain a state of assurance.' F., 18. 'I grew so distressed I cried to God for mercy and forgiveness.' F., — . ' I felt a weight of sin. I prayed not to die until I became better.' F., 15. ' I fought and struggled in prayer to get the feeling that God was with me.' In the tendency to resist conviction, one sees re- flected something of the nature of conversion, and the explanation of some of the phenomena following it. M., 15. (Carefully trained, fell into bad associations, and came under the influence of revival.) ' I resisted as long as possible by finding fault with the church and its members, saying I didn't believe the Bible, or that there was a hell. I was afraid to go to church or to bed.' M., IS- 'I strictly avoided any conversation tending in any way toward moral or religious topics. Conviction became torture, yet I could not yield.' M., 12. 'There was a sort of inward tendency to resist, which did not show itself outwardly.' F., 16. ' I stayed away from revivals and prayer meetings for fear of giving way to my convictions.' F., 17. ' I tried in every way to escape a friend interested in me, and the minister. In prayer- meeting I would hold on to the seat by main force to keep from rising for prayer.' F., 16. ' I often fought against crying, the conviction was so strong.' F., 12. 'I would tell myself, " You ought to join church " ; then I would say, "No, you can't be goOd enough."' F., 18. ' I dreaded to go forward.' F., 18. ' I tried to throw off the feeling by saying all sorts of reckless things about God and religion.' In this class of experiences we see, doubtless, an illustration of the large factor in conversion EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 63 which is carried out beneath the surface, and which we shall notice more fully later on. The pre-conversion states are not infrequently de- scribed in physical terms : — ' I couldn't eat.' ' I would lie awake at night.' ' I was excited.' M., 19. ' I felt I was carrying the world on my shoulders.' M., 19. 'Often, very often, I cried myself to sleep.' M., 10. ' Hymns would sound in my mind as if sung.' F., 15. 'I had visions of Christ, saying to me, "Come to Me, My child!"' M., 17. 'Just before conversion I was walk- ing along a pathway, thinking of religious matters, when suddenly the word H-e-1-1 was spelled out five yards ahead of me.' The frequency with which the various kinds of affections show themselves is given in Table IX. The Mental and Bodily Affections. Female. M.ilc. Total. Sense of Sin ■ 33 33 33 Feeling of Estrangement from God 24 24 24 Desire for Better Life 18 18 18 Depression, Sadness, Pensivencss I ''5 60 70 Restlessness, Anxiety, Uncertainty J 45 33 41 Helplessness, Humility . 1 '^ 9 II Earnestness, Seriousness . I 12 I 8 Prayer, Calling on God . 39 (57 45 Tendency to Resist Conviction 36 ^50 41 Doubts, Questionings 6 lis 9 Loss of Sleep or Appetite 26 29 27 Nervousness .... 6 5 6 Weeping .... 9 3 7 Affection of Sight . 5 5 5 Affection of Hearing 7 4 Affection of Touch . H 12 13 - Average Duration of Conviction 24 week.s. 69 weeks. Table IX. — Showing the relative frotnineiife of the various mental and bodily affections for both sexes. worth of the percentages is more in their relative than CHAPTER VI THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS IMMEDIATELY ACCOMPANYING CONVERSION We shall be spared a tabular presentation of the phenomena at the critical point in conversion. Those immediately before the turning-point are' the same, practically, as those during the conviction period, but deepened and intensified ; and those momentarily following the change are apparently the same in quality as the post-conversion experiences which will be described later. Although more intense than the experiences leading up to conversion, and those during the succeeding period, they are, singularly, less fully and accurately described. Many things are happening, apparently, which, during the intenser emotion, evade critical analysis, even in the retrospect. We shall, accordingly, be concerned in this chapter with a description of some of the bolder outlines of the process involved in the crisis itself, as shown in the mental and bodily states. I. The Intensity of the Emotions. — Although the ex- periences are usually more intense than those we have already noticed, there are many exceptions to the rule. The cases would easily arrange themselves in a series from those in which there is almost no feeling accom- paniment to those, at the other extreme, in which there is intense struggle, the height of pain and joy, and vivid experiences quite out of the range of ordinary life. In a few instances definite changes seem to be worked out quietly somehow in the depths of one's nature without 76 THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 77 registering themselves in the emotions, and they are pre- sented ready-made to consciousness. M., 18. 'There was no emotion. It was a calm acceptance of the power of Christ to save.' M., 12. 'It was simply a jump for the better.' F., 22. ' I was reared in sceptical surround- ings. I prided myself that I was not deluded as others were. ... I felt as I rose to declare myself that a life of decisions was being given up in that one moment. I fully realised what it meant. Mine was just a decision made known to the world that I was going to try the other side. I didn't expect any change, from my cool standpoint, so experienced no extra happiness, It didn't seem supernatural, but about as unlikely to come out as it did as for miracles to go so decidedly opposite to the natural.' The cases shade off rapidly, however, into those which are wrought out with high emotion. M., 19. ' Yearning for a sense of communion with Him, the words, " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found," came with thrilling power.' The incident is described as a ' tumultuous emotional incident.' A very few instances press so close to the emotional end of the series that one wonders to what extent they are pathological. M., 28. ' I fell on my face by a bench and tried to pray. Every time I would call on God something like a man's hand would strangle me by choking. I thought I would surely die if I did not get help. I made one final effort to call oh God for m^rcy if I did strangle and die, and the last I remember at that time was fall- ing back on the ground with that same unseen hand on my throat. When I came to myself there was a crowd around praising God. The very heavens seemed to open and pour down rays of light and glory.' It would not be fair to estimate the average cases by either of the extremes. When the feelings attending conversion were collated and compared with those during the conviction period, they were found to be not only more intense, but to be described more often in physical terms. There is evi- 78 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION dence that the whole nature is in a high state of tension, and that the senses are^much more~acuter The atten- tion is narrowed„and fixed. The exact appearance~of objects, fEepresentation of unusual sights, the exact words spoken and heard, the hymns sung, imaginary sounds and the like are frequently recalled with great minuteness. One person remembers the exact appear- ance of a pane of glass on which his eyes were resting at the time of conversion ; another recalls in detail the look of her garments. Prayers rang in the ears of one ; several heard voices of condemnation or assurance — sometimes it was an ' inner voice,' again it was a real voice. M., 26. ' A voice said, " Believe in Me, for I am God." The voice came as if you were out there speak- ing.' The emotion is oftener in terms of feeling than sight or hearing, as of being bound to the seat, having a choking sensation in the throat, carrying a load on the shoulders, and the like. 2. A Comparison of the Sexes in Emotional Experi- ences. — There is a difference between the sexes which deserves attention in regard to the vividness of the emotions. The males bear out what we found to be true during the conviction period in comparing the revival conversions with the others, in that at the time of the crisis likewise those converted at revivals have the more highly-coloured and, apparently, momentarily deeper-going experience. The females, however, at first sight, exactly contradict what we found in the last chapter. During conviction the disturbances were greater in the non-revival cases, while at the moment we are now considering, the critical point in conversion, it is the revival females who are thrown into the in- tensest emotion. There is one point in explanation of this unexpected difference which has been observed already, and if we read into it a little more carefully, it will show why the group of women (the non-revival) who suffer most pain during the conviction period are most free from it at the critical point of conversion. It is that women are more impressionable than men, THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 79 and are controlled more by large, instinctive feelings. They accept more readily the stimulus of the ensemble, when once it is offered, to carry them over difficulties. This agrees with the conclusions of Mr Havelock Ellis: ' Women respond to stimuli, psychic or physical, more readily than men. This general statement, though it may be modified or limited in certain respects, is un- contested.' ^ Resistance to conviction we saw to be less among the revival females. The strength of sermons, the rhythm of music, the encouragement of friends, the force of example, and all the impetus that comes from a religious service, often furnish the last stimulus needed to carry the restless, struggling life through its uncer- tainty and perplexity. F., 14. ' The sermon seemed just meant for me.' F., 23. ' I was wretched and dis- contented ; I thought it was of no use to try. The music appealed to me. While they were singing I was much moved, and rose to my feet.' Similar instances are numerous. The susceptibility to external influences which helps the woman through her difficulties, at the same time often renders the crisis intensely dramatic. In the presence of the strong forces of a revival she is often deeply moved. F., 16. ' As the choir began to sing I felt a queer feeling about my heart, which might be called a nervous tremor. There was a choking sen- sation in my throat, and every muscle in my body seemed to have received an electric shock. While in this state, hardly knowing what I did, I went forward. On the second night I was converted, and felt that God was- pleased with me.' F., 12. 'On the impulse of the moment I went to the altar. After an hour of pleading and prayer, I felt something go from me, which seemed like a burden lifted, and something seemed floating nearer and nearer just above me. Suddenly I felt a touch as of the Divine One, and a voice said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee ; arise, go in peace." ' ^ Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, chap. xiii. , 'The Affectibilily of Woman. ' 8o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION With the non-revival females and both classes of males, the crisis in conversion is not different in kind from the preceding experiences, but is a culmination and intensification of what we found during conviction. These three classes perhaps act more naturally and subjectively. There are doubtless many other reasons underlying the differences we have noticed. One that suggests itself is that women, by training and custom, are less capable of having vital experiences when in public gatherings. Many customs, such as those of dress, indicate that they expect to be watched. Perhaps they are more genuine when alone. One woman writes : — ' I used to fight and fight during service to make it vital, and not to think about the way I might be impressing others. I had to struggle against being self-conscious.' The conclusions reached by Prof. Coe in the research quoted in the last chapter are in striking coincidence with those herein presented. He says : — ' Men and women seem to differ, first of all, in respect to the focusing of religious changes into intense crises. I find that, whereas 82 per cent, of the men report having passed through such periods of awakening, only 50 per cent, of the women make such report. Among the women religion appears more as an atmosphere ; it is something all-pervasive and taken for granted. With the men it reaches sharper definition, brings greater struggles, and tends more to climacteric periods. ' The interpretation of this fact is not difficult ; it is found in two of the best-established distinctions between the mind of the male and that of the female. The first is the greater tendency of the -female mind towards feeling. Mr Havelock Ellis remarks that, " As a rule, their affectibility protects women from the serious excesses of work or of play to which men are liable."^ 1 Matt and Woman, 2nd edit. London, 1898, p. 312. See also chap. xiii. THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 8i In the second place, women are, on the whole, more suggestible than men.i Now, the more pervasive feeling and suggestibility are, the less likely is a constant sug- gestion and incitement like that derived from one's religious training to produce a marked crisis. This does not imply that men have more religious emotion than women, but only that they are more likely to resist religious tendencies up to the point of explosion.^ 'These results may be summarised and exhibited as follows : — Men. Women. 'Intellect more prominerit ; Sensibility more prominent ; hence, more theoretical hence, more doubt of per- doubts. sonal status. ' Emotion focused on definite Emotion more constant, more objects and at definite diffused, more gentle, periods ; hence, more tur- bulence. ' Less suggestible, resist more, More suggestible ; hence, yield have more intense struggle, more readily to ordinary and less fulfilment of ex- influences. Attain less in pectation. Attain more in solitude ; have less intense solitude. struggle, and more fulfil- ment of expectation.' 3. A ntithetical Feelings during the Crisis. — There are almost invariably two kinds of feelings, immediately successive in time, experienced at the time of conversion. The first are those of the conviction period magnified until the subject is brought to the last degree of dejec- tion, humility, confusion, uncertainty, sense of sinfulness, and the like. These directly give place to contrasted feelings such as joy, lightness of heart, clarified vision, exultation, the sense of free activity and harmony with God. The second group shade off gradually into the characteristic post-conversion experiences. Somewhere between these exactly opposite kinds of feeling there is 1 Man and Woman, chap. xii. ^ Mr Coe corrects at this point an enoneous conclusion in my article on ' Religious Growth,' American Jotirnal of Psychology, ix. 84, that adol- escent storm and stress experiences are more intense with women than men — a conclusion which has since been outgrown. F 82 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION a turning-point where the old life seems to cease and the new to begin. Just what happens at this point which often momentarily, as judged by the surface phenomena, brings such antitheses in the quality of life, is one of the most interesting problems in the study of conversion as well as one of the most difficult. At the present point we shall only try to gain such insight into it as is shown incidentally in a description of the feelings. The picture of the mental state at the turning-point is as if two lives, the present sinful one and the wished-for righteous one, were pressed together in intense opposi- tion, and were both struggling for possession of con- sciousness. The person is principally an observer in the struggle, but suffers from it, and is often torn between the contending forces until he is held between life and death. The ideal life finally, often momentarily, asserts itself, and there is freedom and joy and exuberance of spirit. In the days when it was customary to speak in more picturesque terms, the conflict was described as one between the prince of light and the prince of darkness, or as an evil spirit within one which must be cast out bodily. During the strife the person was a third party to the conflict. Although such a description gives a true picture of the feelings, it is singular that none of the respondents described the experience in allegorical language, but nearly always as a psychological event. The following is a representative instance: F., i8. ' After confirmation I had even greater discontent and dissatisfaction. I was praying all the way along. I went to a place in the country where a series of meet- ings was being held. The minister seemed inspired. I asked God through Jesus to forgive me everything. As I was praying all my sin loomed up before me, and was such a weight on my soul. It instantly gave place to joy. I was conscious that God had forgiven my sins. It was such a work of grace done in my soul. Every- thing seemed heavenly rather than earthly. All night I sang, " Praise God from whom all blessings flow." ' THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 83 These brief quotations fairly represent the first half of the process : M., 19. 'I mourned and wept and prayed, and stood trembling, with tears in my eyes.' M., 15. '1 prayed earnestly for pai'don ; I was willing to do anything for Christ.' M., 16. ' I felt the weight of sin as a burden on my mind.' M., 37. ' I didn't care whether I lived or died.' R, 14. ' My past life was a source of great regret to me. Conviction became so strong at 14 that I thought I would die that very summer if I did not get relief I often worried and lost sleep. One evening, after retiring, a queer- sensation came over me ; it was very dark, as though I was pass- ing through something, and God was right over my head. I trembled intensely, and became exhausted and helpless.' The general character of the second half of the process is illustrated by the following: M., 16. 'In- expressible joy sprang up in my soul.' M., 12. 'I saw a flood of light, and faces in the room seemed to reflect the bright light' M., 15. 'While praying I seemed caught up into the presence of Jesus.' M., 19. ' I per- ceived a load go off.' F., 12. ' I had a sudden transport of joy ; I wished I might die right then and go to God.' M., 17. 'The emotion suddenly broke, and I was con- vinced of the atonement of my sins.' If we boil down the impressions from the preceding instances, the residue is the typical experience, which has three distinct features, vis., dejection and sadness, a point of transition, and, lastly, joy and peace. Were one to follow out the symbolism bound up in the words which represent the first step, 'de-jection,' ' de-pression,' 'a burden,' eta, it would suggest a descending line some- what as shown in a of Figure 5. Then follows a sharp turning-point, and a line going upwards, representing the feelings of joy, lightness, exuberance and elevation of spirit, which are contrasted with the first. Some such diagram seems to represent a composite picture of the crisis in all the cases. There are, how- 84 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION ever, almost as many variations on it as there are cases studied. Some of them deserve attention. In the first place, the turning-point is not always momentary. In the figure, instead of the acute angle between a and b, there would be a curved line in some instances, as c, d. In others we should have simply a turning-point, as between e and f. This quotation illustrates: M., 12. ' I felt the condemnation of God passed upon me as on all who refuse to accept Christ as their Saviour. After a long struggle to evade the grace of God, I finally Fjgure 5. — Diagram representing the feelings at the time of conversion. yielded. The Lord did not give me the evidence of my acceptance with Him so manifestly that night as He did the next morning as I was walking through the woods alone. I shall never forget the sweet peace of soul I then experienced.' Another variation from the general type is that these two kinds of feeling are often completely mingled and blended: 'M., 75. 'I was despondent; I went out of doors and cried; I felt my heart lifting, and couldn't sit still.' F., 12. 'I felt sad over my sins, yet an in- expressible feeling of gladness came over me.' F., 19. ' I read books and reflected, and saw my lack. I knelt and prayed, putting happiness into every breath, and beauty into everything.' It is not infrequent that the post-conversion feelings are anticipated during the con- viction period by some partial momentary sense of joy or vision of the new life. It is equally true that during the post-conversion period there are often distinct echoes of the conviction stage, shown in a sense of heightened THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 85 responsibility, temporary disappointment, and a feeling that the change of heart has not been complete. 4. Two Types of Conversion. — An analysis of the cases from a fresh standpoint shows two fairly distinct types of conversion. They may be characterised re- spectively as escape from sin and spiritual illumination. The first type, escape from sin, is more nearly akin to breaking a habit. It is characteristic of all the older persons studied, and of all, regardless of age, who have led wayward lives. It is connected with the feeling of sinfulness proper, in which the mental state is negative, and attended by dejection and self-abnegation. The second type, which we have inadequately termed spiritual illumination, seems to be the normal — at any rate, the most frequent — adolescent experience. It involves a struggle after larger life, and is largely positive, although often accompanied by uncertainty and distress. After praying, and struggling and striv- ing, the light dawns, new insight is attained, and there is joy and a sense of freedom in the new possession. This latter type is attended, to be sure, with much the same feelings just before the crisis as is the escape from sin, but in this case they are mere incidents to the central fact that the new insight is difficult to attain. There is the same juxtaposition in both instances of two inharmonious lives, the old and the new. In the escape from sin the conflict is between a life that has been lived — a sinful, habitual life — and the life of righteousness ; while in the other type the conflict is between a life that is not — an incomplete, imperfect, aspiring self — and the life which is to blossom out and be realised. Heretofore we have not distinguished between the conviction feelings from this point of view, although some such distinction is hinted in the grouping in Table VIII. on p. 59. But if we classify the con- viction experiences anew, we find them falling into two groups which we may call the sense of sin, on the one hand, and the feeling of incompleteness, on the other. 86 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION The sense of sin shows itself as a feeUng of wretched- ness, heaviness, helplessness, weariness, sensitiveness and resistance, separation from friends and God, fear, resentment, and so on — feelings which are followed after the crisis by joy, peace, rest, lightness of heart, oneness with others and God, love, exuberance of spirits, sense of free activity, and the like. The feelings are reduced to the last degree of tension, and then recoil ; are pent up, and suddenly burst; life appears to force itself to the farthest extreme in a given direction, and then to break into free activity in another. The feeling of imperfection or incompleteness has slightly different accompaniments. There is uncertainty, unrest, mistiness, a dazed feeling, distress, effort, struggle toward an indefinite something, longing for something out of reach, etc., which is followed by peace, happiness, a sense of harmony, a clearing away, a flash of light, freedom, entrance into new life, and so on. Perhaps the purest type of ' escape from sin ' is in the case of the conversion of a drunkard, such as is found in the auto- biography of John B. Gough or H. H. Hadley, or other records of a similar nature. The following account given by the superintendent of a rescue mission is a fair example of this group. M., 37. 'By 12 I found the devil in me, leading me to do wrong. I began drinking at 20. By 26 rum got the upper hand. I was robbed of my manhood, found myself homeless and an outcast. I couldn't work, being broken up with nervousness. I had three months of severe struggle. My condition brought up the recollection of home, and what I might have been. I was a misery to myself and everybody else. I went to a city mission. That night, in my room, in despair, I struggled in prayer. I said, " If there is a God, save me from this life ! " I didn't care whether I lived or died. While I was struggling in prayer I felt a peace within. A calm came over me.' Here is the effect of actual sinfulness, which has become so ingrained as completely to overmaster one's nature; a life burned out and brought face to face with physical THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 87 ruin ; the opposition between the hopeless present and an ideal; and the dawning of new life when there is complete self-effacement. The other type, ' spiritual illumination,' presents a slightly different picture. The person is not thrown back in the same way into helplessness under habitual sin. There is more of a reaching out, or, on the other hand, an extreme sense of unworthiness and imperfec- tion, in which the longing for the unattained is strongly implied. F., 15. 'I prayed day after day, struggling for light.' F., lO. ' The chief trouble was I did not feel myself so great a sinner as I thought I ought' F., 16. ' I felt the need of a religion. I read a certain book and thought over it. I was beginning to despair.' M., 23. ' I prayed and cried to God for help. I wandered four years, seeking rest. I went to many a priest for comfort.' F., 18. 'I felt a dissatisfaction with my way, which lasted several years. It wasn't guilt. I didn't know what I wanted. I had such a desire to be delivered from sin.' The feelings which follow the dawn of new life are slightly different from those which follow the escape from sin. F., 15. 'While struggling in prayer, peace came to me through the darkness.' F., 10. 'I came to have a feeling as I do now when a thing is right.' F., — . ' New light seemed to dawn on me.' M., 23. 'When all outward help failed, a voice came which said, " There is one, even Christ Jesus, can speak to thy condition " ; and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.' F., 13. 'I could fairly see the Gospel truths which had been misty.' Something like the trend of feelings during con- version and the distinction between the two types is shown graphically in Figure 6. No doubt, the nature of conversion as usually con- ceived is of the type we have called the ' escape from sin,' represented by the heavy line in the figure. It is important to note, however, that if the cases we are studying are representative, that type of conversion which 88 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION ts accompanied by the feeling of incompleteness is more common than that which is accompanied by the sense of sin. Rarely does either type exist perfectly pure, but each usually savours to some degree of the other. FiGU RE 6. — Illustrating roughly the mental processses at conversion, as shown by tlie feeling acconipaninients. Frequently they are so blended as to be indistinguish- able. Of those cases which belong rather distinctly to one or the other type, there seem to be about six times as many which follow the sense of incompleteness as the escape from sin. There are more of this type in both sexes, and in both revival and non-revival groups. It is the rule for the non-revival females to belong to it. If our analysis is correct, it raises some vital questions as to the help demanded by persons in spiritual difficulty. Doubtless, when there has been waywardness, and one has grown habitually sinful, the most efficacious way of rescue is to picture the fate of continuance in sin, to throw the person back on himself, to lead him to see the blackness of sin as contrasted with the beauty of holiness, and to make the break unavoidable, sharp and final ; but to use the same methods with all alike, including the youth who is seeking light, is doubtful wisdom. It may be that in this case also it is important in many instances to bring into sharp contrast the ideal life and the present imperfect one. Where there is thoughtlessness, it may be important to set forth, as one writer says, ' the THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 89 awful majesty of the moral law.' When one is seriously struggling for light, however, when the spiritual seed is disturbing the clod and preparing to grow, we may do violence to it by drastic measures. We shall see evidence in a later chapter that such is often the case, and that persons are often thrown adrift by lack of wisdom on the part of spiritual leaders in meeting individual needs. A question of no little interest is what are the life-processes which underlie these diverse manifes- tations of feeling which we have described ? How are two kinds of feeling thrown into sharp opposition ? What is happening when the change is made from one type of life to another ? We shall be able to answer more adequately when we have the description of the process before us as the respondents believe it to have occurred. CHAPTER VII IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS Just what happens at the point of transition in con- version is the part of it which, above all others, escapes analysis by the respondents. Nearly all answered the question, 'In what did conversion consist?' in some way or other, and, while they were usually not able to compass the process and set it forth in words, there was enough talking around the subject, here and there, to give occasional glimpses of the mental states and processes at the crucial point in conversion. A few had a distinct feeling of something taking place in their natures. Two persons illustrated graphically the pro- cess by drawing lines. In both, conversion was pictured by rapidly ascending curves. It is clear that the greater part of the change takes place in the region of the sub-conscious. We shall have to dredge for the gem of knowledge, even if we acknowledge at last that it escaped us. The inspiring task before us is to take the surface phenomena which can be put into words by the subjects, and let them lead us, if they will, into the processes which are going on beneath; to take the scattered bits of experience which appeal to conscious- ness, and to fill in some of the gaps and make the picture somewhat more complete, even if it remains extremely imperfect and inadequate. When the states and processes that were thought to be central were analysed and collated, they formed seven classes, instances of which are given below : — I. Yielding, self- surrender, breaking pride, etc. — 90 IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 91 M., 15. 'I finally gave up trying to resist' M., 18. 'I wanted to be a lawyer, and was not willing to do the work God called me to do. After much prayer I surrendered completely, and had the assurance that I was accepted.' F., 13. ' I knew it would be best for me, but there were some things I could not give up. When relief came, all my pride was gone.' F., 17. ' I had said I would not give up ; when my will was broken, it was all over.' M., 17. ' I simply said, " Lord, I have done all I can, I leave the whole matter with Thee." Im- mediately, like a flash of light, there came to me a great peace.' It is a common phenomenon that when the person surrenders his or her will, the new life suddenly springs up. When the personal will ceases, the larger will comes in. 2. Deterniination, exercise of will, etc. — M., 19. ' I determined to yield my heart and life to God's service.' R, 13. 'One day I made up my mind I would be for Christ always.' F., 18. ' I made up my mind to be a Christian, regardless of feeling.' M., 18. 'It was de- ciding for the sake of doing right and influencing others.' The cases are interesting in which there is a ' determina- \ tion to yield,' an experience that is halfway between two groups, the first and second, which are apparently contradictory. 3. Forgiveness. — F., 13. 'I felt the wrath of God resting on me. I called on Him for aid and felt my sins forgiven.' F., 16. ' I felt God's forgiveness so distinctly.' M,, 15. 'I seemed to hear Jesus speak words of for- giveness (a purely mental experience).' M., 15. ' Gradually the sense came over me that I had done my part and God was willing to do His, and that He was not angry with me ; I had a sense of sins forgiven.' 4. God's help, or presence of some outside power (generally not involving forgiveness). — M., 19. ' By God's special grace and help I sought peace publicly and foignd it.' - M., 27. ' I saw the words, " Without blood there is no remission," and the Holy Spirit sealed 92 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION them to my heart.' M., 15. ' I felt sure I had received the Holy Spirit.' 5. Public confession. — Often after the battle has been fought out on the plane of conscience or reason, the crucial thing in the feeling of certain persons yet remains, viz., making it known to the world. The social sanction is a surprisingly strong factor in the change. M., 15. 'I did feel that in taking this public step I had crossed the Rubicon.' M., 13. ' I held up my hand in prayer-meeting as a profession of faith in Christ.' F., — . ' I rose for prayer and felt relieved.' M., 12. 'At the call for those who wished prayer, I was immediately on my feet, and it seemed as if a great burden had been removed.' Public confession seems often closely akin to forgiveness and the sense of harmony with God, the sanction of the church and the approval of friends standing for the more abstract relation. It is also closely related to breaking pride and self-surrender. 6. Spontaneous awakening. — This class consists, in the purest instances, of what in the last chapter was termed ' spiritual illumination.' These are cases in " which the new life bursts forth without any apparent immediate adequate cause. M., 22. ' I got to attending revivals, and thought much over my condition and how to know I was saved. Everything depended on "Him that cometh unto me," etc.; " cometh" was the pivotal word. One evening while walking along the road it came to me that it was all right now.' M., 11. ' After failing of relief at revival, I was singing songs by myself at home. After I got through singing, I sat and thought, " Why, God does forgive me, and if I live right He will help me."' M., 37. 'I had been a drunkard for years and struggled against my better sensibilities. . . . I attended a city mission. ... I read the Bible and prayed far into the night. Then I went to sleep, and during the night the thing had cleared itself up in my mind, and I was ready to live or die by it.' F., 13. ' For four years I had wanted to be a Christian, but could not feel my IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 93 sins forgiven. One morning, sitting in my room reading, peace just seemed to come, and I was happy indeed.' M., 14. ' I cannot now designate any external cause of my conversion. I wanted to be a Christian, and without speaking to anyone about it, prayed for for- giveness. Relief came as a sense of peace and for- giveness. My religious life seemed to come into being at that moment. It came without any thought or act of my own.' Such cases have probably some direct antecedent in thought or action which temporarily fades away and is revived in the finished result. 7. Feeling of oneness with God (or with friends). — M., 15. ' I felt my sins forgiven, and for the first time in my life I really enjoyed a prayer-meeting. I felt I had something in common with the church members who spoke to me. I enjoyed speaking to them and felt at rights with God.' F., 12. 'The witness of the Spirit that I was a child of God's was very clear.' M., 17. ' It was a sudden awakening, so I could say in my heart, "Our father in heaven."' M., 14. 'I knelt and prayed; I seemed immersed for the moment in a larger being as though it had closed about me ; I felt sure I had re- ceived the Holy Spirit,' The idea of oneness is also involved in ' forgiveness.' It runs likewise at one point into ' public confession,' from the fact that the sense of oneness^ is often only the condition of coming into har- monious relationship with the social order. The quota- tions above are given to show how they form a series from those in which the sense of oneness is concrete and personal, to those in which it is abstract and spiritual. The relative frequency of the various elements thought to be central is given in Table XI. The same person often mentioned facts which came under two or more of the seven headings. The percentages were distributed so that the sum of each column gives 100 per cent. The figures do not show, therefore, the per cent, of cases in which each element enters, but the relative prominence of the various classes. In the table the different groups are placed in the order of their 94 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION prominence. That quality of conversion in whicli the new life bursts forth spontaneously is by far the most com-mon. The conscious exercise of will and self- That in which Conveksion Consists Female. Male. Total. ' Spontaneous Awakening . 24 23 24 "i- Forgiveness 15 19 16 ■^ Public Confession .... 17 13 16 H Sense of Oneness (with God, friends, etc. ) !> Self-Surrender 13 lb 14 14 II 13 V Determination ..... 10 8 9 'l Divine Aid 7 10 8 Tablh XI. — Showing the relative frequency of certain things regarded as central in conversion. surrender are at the small end of the list. The last group, divine aid, would have been much larger, had the cases not been excluded in which the sense of forgive- ness was the distinctive feature, although they often clearly imply divine intervention. A Comparison of the Sexes. — When we inquire at this point for the likenesses and differences between the experiences of females and males, the matter has be- come complicated. In some respects there is an agree- ment with what we have already found. For example, public confession is greater among females ; they were found before to be more influenced by surroundings. The most patent fact, however, is that at the time of conversion the sexes, which during the conviction period differed widely, are reduced more nearly to the same level. The two columns of per cents, in Table XI. show no very striking contrasts. The similarity is yet more apparent in Table XII. following, in which the revival and non-revival cases are compared. The relation of these classes is generally about the same for both sexes. For example, determination is less among the revival females than among the non-revival ; it is also less among the revival males. During the conviction period. IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 95 on the contrary, the females and males were usually contradictory. In some respects Table XI. seems exactly to contra- dict our previous results. Determination, the feeling of expenditure of effort, is greater among females, instead of less; self-surrender is greater also among females, although there was clearly greater wilfulness and ten- dency to resist conviction up to this point among the males. On the other hand, the sense of oneness with God, which is largely a feeling, is more frequent among the males, who have heretofore manifested relatively less feeling. The spontaneous bursting forth of new life is likewise about as common among males. If we look carefully, however, we find these apparent anomalies falling in line with our previous analysis. Conversion for males is a more violent incident than for females, and more sudden. The man prepares for it longer (the conviction period is of longer duration), weighs the possibilities, resists the forces which oppose his will, and when they become irresistible, the change is cataclysmic. But, as we have already found, height of feeling is at the expense of conscious will. At the moment of the crisis, accordingly, the conscious expen- diture of effort, as well as the relaxation of it, are less appreciated. At the same time, feeling, which is inci- dental to the intense experience, is vivid in conscious- ness. It will be noticed, too, that the intenser experience is accompanied by a tendency to objectify it, as is shown in the fact that forgiveness and divine aid are greater among males. At the moment of conversion there is less heat among the females, and a greater ability to get the experience in terms of consciousness. The worth of this explanation is emphasised by observing that, in the following table, determ-ination, in which emotion is less marked, and also oneness with God are greater with both sexes in the non-revival class. The foregoing facts are in line with other bits of knowledge in regard to the sexes. The life of the female is more organic, more of one piece. She is 96 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION usually recognised as being the conserving element in racial transmission. As in racial life, so in individual growth there seems to be more continuity and evenness in the stream of her life. There, is an interesting analogy also on the physical side to this aspect of religious growth. In his study of puberty, Dr Bierent says (translating freely), ' If that stage (puberty) marks an acute and violent crisis among males, among females it is only an agitation. In other words, we say of a girl that her puberty reaches its culmination ; of a boy, that his puberty becomes a paroxysm.' ' A Comparison of the Revival Cases with the Others. Some of the essential differences between the revival and non-revival cases have been pointed out in the pre- ceding section. Self-surrender, forgiveness and public confession are, as we should expect, greater in the revival cases. It should be noted that in the non- revival conversions determination and spontaneous awakening are both greater. We shall see later that they may be closely connected. Female. Male. Both. Consists. Revival. Non- Revival, Revival. Non- Revival. Revival. Non- Revival. Spontaneous Awaken ing Determination . Sense of Oneness Divine Aid . . Self-Surrender . Forgiveness Public Confession 22 6 12 8 14 19 19 27 15 i6 5 14 lO 13 21 5 II 6 14 24 19 26 II 21 15 7 13 7 21 6 12 7 14 21 19 27 13 18 9 II II II Table XII. — Comparing the revival and non-revival cases in regard to certain elements looked upon as central in conversion. 1 Leon Bierent, La PuhertJ, Paris, 18 p. 40. IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 97 T/te Relation between the Various Conviction States and the Essential Elements at the Crisis in Conversion. Our purpose now is to ascertain wiiat particular conviction-experience each of these groups we are studying is most likely to follow. In Table XIII. we have selected six of the characteristic conviction pheno- mena. These appear at the top of the table. Below are the numbers showing the frequency with which each of them is followed by any or all of the seven types of experience during the crisis. (Incomplete records and doubtful cases are omitted.) We shall be Passive Temperament. Active Temperament. c _ „s s-d o be • wis CO 5W£ W E ^S 2? (1h — 25: Spontaneous Awaken- ing follows . 28 26 7 5 21 21 Forgiveness follows 35 22 9 13 24 10 Public Confession , , 20 15 8 9 8 12 Oneness with God „ 27 19 7 7 21 15 Self-Surrender ,, 17 21 7 14 IS 16 Determination , , 6 9 I 6 2 9 Divine Aid ,, 14 II 7 4 10 4 Table XIII. — Showing the relation between cerlain conviction experiences and the elements thought to be central at the point of transition. concerned primarily with the relative magnitude of the numbers in the vertical columns. If all the groups were equally characteristic of the conviction period, or of the crisis, we could interpret both the horizontal and vertical columns. Since the groups are not equally prominent, this would clearly be unfair. We can say with fairness, however, that the sense of sin, for example, inasmuch as it exists as a common experience before G 98 THE PSYCHOLOGY O^ RELIGION conversion, is equally liable to show itself in any of the seven types of the conversion phenomena, unless there is some intrinsic reason why it should break forth in a particular one. The question is, simply. Given any experience before conversion, the sense of sin, for example, what is most likely to follow at the point of conversion ? Looking at this column, we see, for instance, that forgiveness is the most liable to result and determination the least. It will simplify our dis- cussion if we consider the first three columns together, in which a passive temperament is expressed, and some- what by themselves the last three, which show more clearly an element of will. The first three columns give evidence, in the first place, that the feeling of expenditure of effort at the point of conversion is small, as is shown by the relative smallness of the numbers after ' determination.' On the contrary, self-surrender, which involves the giving up of personal will, is much more frequent ; and it should be borne in mind that an element of self-surrender is con- tained also in forgiveness. Forgiveness, which is in general the most prominent sequence of these three states, implies a reliance on an external means of escape. This is true, likewise, of ' divine aid.' From the frequency of forgiveness, one sees that the sin-sense is uppermost in conversion. Spontaneous awakening is second in im- portance. It shows, perhaps, a recoil from the tension of feeling. The natural result of the escape from^in, and of estrangement, which means seclusion, is the sense of oneness with God. The last three columns emphasise the same points, and bring forward some others. One might expect, in the sequence of these types which involve an active temperament, that determination would be strong like- wise during the crisis; but, on the contrary, it is the smallest of all the groups, while, as before, self-surrender is prominent. It is remarkable that in these three columns in which the element of will is present, self- surrender is much more prominent than in the preceding IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 99 three. In the columns we are now considering it is evident that self-surrender is important, whether one's effort is against the new life, as in resistance to convic- tion, or toward it, as in prayer and personal effort. That is, at the crisis in conversion, no matter whether or \ not the will has been definitely exercised, and regardless of j the direction in which it has been exercised, it is an ini- \ portant step toward spiritual regeneration that the personal' will be given up. Especially is this true when there is resistance to conviction, after which self-surrender and forgiveness stand much above any of the other groups. Forgiveness is naturally the most prominent item follow- ing ' prayer,' with the sense of oneness also frequent. It should be noted that divine aid is smaller in these three columns than in the last three. We have in the foregoing only half the picture of the effect of the will. The purest result would be found in the last column, personal effort, striving in the direc- tion of the new life. In this column spontaneous awakening is the most frequent item. It is also next to the most frequent after prayer. If this is true, it appears that the will is not valueless in the process of conversion, as we were about to conclude, but, on the contrary, it may be of the first importance. After the person has striven in the direction of the new life, it would seem that it then tends to come of itself ' God helps them who help themselves.' It may be that the effort expended is one I direct cause of the otherwise unaccountable awakening. I We shall have occasion in the next chapter to see in what way effects work themselves out beneath the surface in human nature. It is interesting to notice the con- trast to the above in the column under resistance to conviction, in which spontaneous awakenings, instead of being the rule, are the exception. The effort must be in the direction of the new life and not against it, if the new life is to spring up of itself; otherwise the road lies through self-surrender and forgiveness. The sense of oneness is relatively absent after resistance, instead of frequent, as in conversions which follow striving toward ICO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION the new life. Our discussion seems to settle down to this : there are two essential aspects of conversion, that in which there is self-surrender and forgiveness, accompanied by a sense of harmony with God ; and that in which the neiv life btirsts forth spontaneously as the natural recoil from the sense of sin, or as the result of a previous act of the will in striving toward righteousness. In turning away now for a time from the evidence from the records themselves of what happens at the moment of conversion, the central impression is that our goal has not been compassed ; that at best we have hints of it, but that the ' explanation ' of the process has escaped us. We shall be contented largely at last with a description of the process, which we shall attempt when all the facts are before us. In the next chapter we shall consider more in detail the element of spontaneity in- volved in conversion. C H A P T E R V I 1 1 THE CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS IN CONVERSION I. The Conscious Element Involved. — In this chapter we may add one more to the many shades of meaning of the term ' conscious.' We shall use the word in a very general, though fairly consistent way, to stand for the undifferentiated centre at which intellection and volition separate. It represents an element of purpose, insight and choice, as distinguished from mere response to environment, reaction to stimuli and blind determina- tion. The question is not simply how much of conver- sion is willed, but how much of the process as it is being wrought out rises into consciousness ; and, on the other hand, is there evidence that part of the process is worked out autom.atically by the nervous system, or, as Oliver Wendell Holmes says, by 'a creating and informing spirit which is with us and not of us.' There are evidences of the presence of both conscious self-direction and automatism in conversion. Among the evidences of the latter are the apparent smallness of the intellectual factor among the conscious motives to conversion, and also of the volitional element at the time of the change. For example, during the conviction period, conscious following out of teaching was mentioned in only lO per cent, of the cases, and response to a moral ideal in only 17 per. cent. ; while imitation and social pressure were recognised in 32 per cent, of them. We have just seen that the conscious exercise of will was rarely mentioned as being central at the time of 102 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION conversion. That an apparently spontaneous awaken- ing was found to be the prominent factor in the change, increases the evidence that the process is automatic. Public confession may mean that the subject is driven by surroundings. The sense of forgiveness and that of oneness with God also generally indicate that the ex- perience is worked out in the sphere of feeling. There are, however, many evidences of the presence of con- scious purpose. It is often mentioned as a recognised factor. Besides, the cases show that public confession is often made in spite of adverse surroundings. Self- surrender generally means that the subject is drawn between two possible courses, and must decide between them. The persistent struggle often shown during con- viction, sometimes toward a definite end and sometimes toward a dimly-defined one, indicates the presence, per- haps, of incipient ideation and volition. In order to arrive at an estimate of the conscious concomitant, the cases were studied through with that alone in view. The result of it is the most uncertain of all the attempts at tabulation. It necessitates evaluation at every point, so that the source of error is very great. The table following, accordingly, has less value than those that have preceded. A valuable check on the possibility of such evaluation was that another person worked through the cases and obtained practically the same results as those of the writer. The cases were separated into five classes, as determined by the pro- minence of the conscious element ; first, the ones in which it is absent, or nearly so — these are largely cases of imitation, adolescent ferment, and the like; second, those in which it is small ; third, those in which the conscious and automatic forces are about evenly balanced ; fourth, in which there was apparently a predominance of insight, and of moving along a clearly-marked course ; and lastly, those in which the conscious element seems without much doubt to be the determining factor. The following instances of each class will give an idea of the evaluation : — CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 103 (i.) M., 15. 'It began largely as imitation ; a friend told me I was not free from liability to divine dis- pleasure.' R, 8. 'At camp meeting I, went to the altar with twenty others ; in the uncertainty at the altar I repeated after the leader, "I believe Him." I kne\v: I was converted; and afterwards I had great- comfort in Bible reading and prayer, and in times of anxiety.' (2.) R, II. 'From my earliest days I had wanted to be a Christian ; I felt desire, unrest and fear. Many were going forward at the revival ; that made it easy for me. J made confession by^ speaking, in meeting, and felt the peace of God.' M., 14. 'I was influenced by. the example of father and mother; besides this, I had a sense of duty. I was afraid of being lost, and felt that I was not good enough to become a Christian. I broke my pride and made publrc confession.' (3.) R, 16. ' I became deeply convicted of sin ; for three weeks I spent mUchttme in prayer, and had an awful sense of helplessness. Relief came during a revival. I made up my mind the Sunday before Ihat I would rise for prayer ; I think it came through my own thought and deliberate choice.' R, 14. 'I thought a great deal about the after life, and knew I must de- cide; I had a sort of depressed feeling, and I engaged in prayer. Three days after making up my mind, relief came by feeling God's forgiveness.' (4.) R, 14. -'I had an unsatisfied feeling, -and a craving for a higher life; I fought and struggled in prayer to get the feeling that God was with me ; with the greatest effort I endeavoured to get some glimpses of light. While struggling for light, peace came to me through the darkness, and I felt at rest' M., 18. 'I wanted to make the most possible out of life and to exert the right influence over my pupils and over young people; it was also a divine instinct, gratitude for blessings received, that led me to make a personal choice. I decided the matter at home that I would not only be partly right, but wholly right' (5.) R, 18. 'The change was purely in making up I04 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION my mind that I would live as Christ would have me, whether certain feeHngs came or not. I felt happy and satisfied.' M., 12. 'It seemed only deliberate choice gradually growing and reaching its climax at con- version. The duty I owe to Christ, who had done so much for me, was the chief factor. My conversion was just a jump for the better in the direction of the gradual growth which had preceded.' According to the above standard of classification, the cases resulted as shown in Table XIIlA. It is seen from the table that there are a few cases only in which the conscious element is either absent or apparently the principal determining factor in the change. Male. Female. Conscious Element, Per Cent, of whole Niimber. Average Age. Per Cent, of whole Number. Average Age. Conscious Element Absent . Less than unconscious . Equal to unconscious Greater than unconscious Entirely dominant . (or nearly sd) 2 34 36 26 2 II 13-6 16.2 17.4 18 19 42 19 17 3 II.8 13-2 14.6 ■5-4 17 Table XIIIa. — Showing the result of an altempt to estimate the degree of the conscious element present in conversions. They arrange themselves in a series from the almost wholly externally determined conversions, to those which come from clear insight, and which are con- trolled largely by subjective forces. The males form a pretty regular series, there being about the same number in which the conscious element is largely present and largely absent, and they culminate , at the point where the conscious and unconscious elements are equally commingled^ The females fall more on CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 105 the side of the automatic. Nineteen per cent, of the females, as against 2 per cent, of males, belong to the class in which the conscious element is absent. The most frequent group is the second, in which the conscious accompaniment is somewhat small. The point of special interest is that most of the cases fall between the extremes, that is, in conversion the con- scious and unconscious forces rarely exist separately, but visually act together and interact on each other. Age has much to do with the place in the series into which any case will fall. It will be noticed in the table that the average age of both males and females increases gradually with the increase of the conscious concomitant, showing again that spiritual awakenings in different stages of life doubtless have a very different content. 2. The Unconscious or Automatic Element. — The im- portance of the conscious element is not simply in its presence immediately at conversion. Without excep-- tion, the cases studied, no matter how suddenly the new life bursts forth, have antecedents in thought or action that appear to lead up directly to the phenomenon of conversion. The picture seems to be that of -a iiow ' of unconscious life rising now and then into conscious will, which, in turn, sets going new forces that readjust the sum of the old thoughts and feelings and actions. Whether the flow of physiological processes first gives rise to the thought product, or whether the incipient conversion holds a causal relation to the flash of new life and activity, cannot be determined. So much is clear, that before and during conversion the two things go together and interact upon each other. The whole conviction period seems to be a disturbance in the automatic, habitual processes caused by the presence of an incipient, but still dim and confused idea. Life is continually prodded by forces from without. Reverses in life, death, the example of a beautiful personality, ideas from other people, the demands of established institutions, and the like, are frequently io6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION mentioned as among the things which shake life from its self-content, and lead it into a recognition of a larger world than its own. Although we have seen the spontaneous-awakening type of conversion to be the most frequent, there is not a single instance of this type in which there have not been some antecedents in thought or action which may be re- garded as ' causes ' leading toward the awakening. The way in which a thought or an experience leaves its impress and works itself out in the sphere of the sub- conscious is best shown by some typical cases. F., — . ' A year before my conversion I had been to the altar, but felt no better ; I wasn't ready to become a Christian. The following year, during revivals, I felt more in earnest than ever before. I went to the altar two nights in succession ; I went in spite of my friends. A friend came and spoke to me, and it came over me like a flash of lightning that I was saved. I remember distinctly what different persons said to me afterwards.' Here is shown an effort by an unripe nature, a year of perseverance, and at last, under favourable surround- ings, the thing sought for coming like a flash. The mental tension at the time of conversion is shown by the permanence of the impressions made on the senses. One young woman writes: 'The change came in the ordinary course ; no one else had anything to do with it. I know no cause.' But in describing the pre-con- version experiences, she says, ' The fears of being lost set me to thinking ; I regretted my moral negligence ; for six months nothing gave me any rest, and I engaged much in prayer.' M., 15. 'I felt self-condemnation at having done wrong. At the end of ten days I went into my bedroom and prayed. "Jesus, take me," is all I said. As I rose and walked across the room it came to, me that I was sincere and my prayer was real, and I believed my acceptance with God.' Sometimes the experience which precedes the change is weeks and even months of intensest thought-struggle and prayer. Often the thought or act which sticks in one's conscious- CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 107 ness and seems to prepare it for the awakening is very- small. This may depend on one's ripeness for the new experience. M., 19. ' Knowledge of sin had ripened into the sense of sin ; at church one sentence in the sermon caught my attention, though I was usually inattentive. The impression faded away immediately. Two days later, while in business, there was a sudden arrest of my thought without a consciously associated natural cause. My whole inner nature seemed summoned to a decision for or against God ; and in five minutes I had a distinctly formed purpose to seek Him. It was followed immediately by a change, the principal mani- festation of which was a willingness to make known my decision and hope of divine forgiveness.' These antecedents to the change are numerous and various. They are. determination to yield, longing, effort, per- formance of some act, serious thought, and the like. We should recall in this connection that spontaneous awak- ening is the most frequent conversion phenomenon following effort in the direction of the new life. If we ask in what way these antecedents to conver- sion help work out a transformation of character, it will have to be admitted at the start that what happens below the threshold of consciousness must, in the nature of the case, evade analysis. It tends to fill in the chasm in our knowledge, however, to explain it in terms of the nervous system and its functionings. It is a generally accepted notion that every thought or feeling or volition involves some activity in the nervous system. In the language of Professor James, who has given the most lucid account of this point of view : ' There are mechani- cal conditions on which thought depends, and which, to say the least, determine the order in which is presented the content or material for her comparisons, selections and decisions.' ' Any new idea entertained means that a new connection between two cerebral areas has been formed, or that there has been some fresh combination of nervous discharges in the cerebrum. If two ideas 1 Wm. James, Principles of Psyckolog}', 1890, Vol. I., p. 553. io8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION are brought together in consciousness, the condition underlying it is that two nerve tracts have functioned simultaneously, or in close sequence. One of the most certain of all the principles relating to nerve activity is that most of it goes on independently of conscious voli- tion. Just as the beating of the heart is carried on by the lower nerve centres without our being aware of it, so cerebral activity goes on automatically, even during reverie and sleep. New stimuli are constantly raining in through the senses ; circulation and nutrition are storing up energy of different degrees of potentiality in different areas of the nervous system ; each discharge in the cerebrum becomes in turn a stimulus to the areas surrounding it. As a consequence the nervous system is ' like a wind-swept lake.' The elements of con- sciousness are re-combining, and perpetually taking on new colouring without our knowing it until the products start up into clearness. The difference between the conscious and sub-conscious elements is perhaps in the degree of resistance in the nervous system to the neural discharge which corresponds to a certain idea. If a dis- charge has little dynamic significance, or if it has become habitual and easy, the even flow of consciousness is not disturbed by it. If, on the other hand, an idea is difficult of realisation, and at the same time involves a consider- able fraction of the available nervous energy and a violent re-adjustment of the neural elements, it may be lifted up above the threshold of consciousness, and may have even momentous significance. Now, if our sketch of this aspect of the mental life is true, we are in a position to see the relation between the longings and strivings, the perplexity and uncertainty, the seriousness, and the like, which precede conversion, and the seemingly inexplicable outbursts of life which follow. It means that spontaneous awakenings are, in short, the fructification of that which has been ripening ' within the sub-liminal consciousness. Those phenomena which we have designated antecedents to conversion may have significance in either of two ways — in the first CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 109 place, they may be causal, in that they constitute new and foreign elements, which come in and directly lead up to the changed aspect of life which eventually appears. An instance of this kind may be found in the case quoted above, in which the young woman went to the altar the year before her conversion without realis- ing the desired experience. This act may have estab- lished an ideal which worked itself out meanwhile, so that it came over her ' like a flash of lightning that she was saved.' Secondly, an antecedent element may simply be an index on the surface of what is going on beneath, as in another case above, in which a sentence in the sermon that caught the young man's attention may have been but an indication of the growth between the ' ripening of the sense of sin,' and the sudden but ' dis- tinctly formed purpose to seek God.' It will clear the matter up if we illustrate by a diagram the connection between the antecedents and the awakening. We shall begin with the most difficult case, that in which the awakening succeeds the charac- teristic depression and spiritual discontent, and if that becomes clear, the rest will follow easily. In Figure 7 we shall let A, B, C, D stand for brain areas, or bits of experience which are real to the person before conver- sion, viz., right conduct, wise teaching, wholesome affections, some budding idea, as the case may be — all | of which, when taken together, hint some larger revela- ; tion, r, which is dimly felt. The dreamed-of ideal, r, becomes a new and disturbing factor in consciousness._j When the mind is once disturbed it cannot rest until harmony has been restored. It is like a new element coming to the physical organism, which must be assimi- lated as food, or cast out, like a splinter in the flesh, as a foreign substance. The mental state is that of the unwholeness, anxiety and pain we have described. . There is a beating around the bush, a wanting something and not knowing what. But now, under the emotional stress of a revival, or following the natural processes of growth, harmony is unexpectedly struck among the no THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION suggestions in, n, o,p of the bits of experience, A, B, C, D. The scattered ends seem to pick up and live. The condition is illustrated in Figure 8. R bacomes the fuller, more adequate organising centre. It is life on a new plane, a fresh insight, a larger outlook on the world. The process of regeneration becomes, from this point of view, the feeling of ease, harmony and free activity, after the last step of assimilation and re-adjustment has been taken. Figure 7. — Before Cotwersion. Figure %.— Conversion. Religious awakening is by no means a unique ex- perience, but falls in with the recognised facts of mental assimilation. The instances are numerous in solving problems, making inventions, reaching scientific con- clusions, and the like, of persons feeling after an idea with unrest and perplexity until the result is finally pre- sented to clear consciousness ready-made. The case of Sir William Rowan Hamilton's discovery of the method of ' Quaternions ' is in point because of its similarity in most respects to the mental clarification which announces new religious insight. Hamilton writes : ' To-morrow will be the fifteenth birthday of the " Quaternions." They started into life, or light, full-grown, on the i6th of October 1843, as I was walking with Lady Hamilton to Dublin, and came up to'Broughton Bridge. That is to say, I then and there felt the galvanic current of thought close ; and the sparks which fell from it were the fundamental equations between i,j, k — exactly such as I have used them ever since. I pulled out on the spot a pocket-book, which still exists, and made an CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS m entry, on which, at the very moment, I felt that it might be worth my while to expend the labour of at least ten (or it might be fifteen) years to come. But then it is fair to say that was because I felt a problem at that moment solved — an intellectual want relieved — which had liaunted me for at least fifteen years before!- ' In this particular instance, the ' conviction period ' lasted fifteen years, accompanied by an 'intellectual want,' until finally the ' galvanic current of thought closed,' bring- ing with it what we have called a ' spontaneous awaken- ing ' and relief. If we turn to the numerous instances in conversion of striving to obtain a revelation, we shall find it a special case of the principles of ' unconscious cerebration ' and mental assimilation just considered, and shall arrive at the same time at some understanding of the function of the will in conversion. In the act of trying, the ideal life is more keenly felt than in the instance we have been considering — the condition of vaguely feeling after it ; and some one course, say B« of Figure 7, is selected as the means of attaining r. After one exerts an effort, the fruition of it is accomplished by the life-forces which act through the personality. It is a well-known law of the nervous system that it 'tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in which it is habitually exercised.' ^ It is only a slight variation on this law to say that the nervous system grows in the direction of the expenditure of effort. The unaccomplished volition is doubtless an indication that new nerve connections are budding, that a new channel of mental activity is being opened ; and, in turn, the act of centering force (trying) in the given direction may, through increased circulation and heightened nutrition at that point, itself directly contribute to the formation of those nerve connections, through which the high potential of energy which corresponds to the new insight ' North British Review, Vol. XLV., p. 57. Quoted in Dr Carpenter's' Mental Physiology, 1881, p. 537. ^ Carpenter, Mental Physiology, p. 344. 112 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION expends itself. On the mental side, this law is illus- trated in the familiar instances of trying to recall a for- gotten name, giving it up, and having it flash across the mind at some unexpected moment, and of solving problemiS dui-ing sleep which have been struggled with unsuccessfully during the day. '^ The mind seems to have a way of working ahead at its difficulties uncon- sciously. Dr Smith,'^ in using the Ebbinghaus series of nonsense syllables in the study of memory, finds that if one fails to recall some member of a given series, it is the forgotten member which pops up in the succeeding series, rather than the members which had been recalled, and which, being the best known, might be expected to be the first to recur. The mind has delivered itself of the remembered ones, and in that respect is at ease ; the forgotten one, following the effort of the will to recall, blocks the free current of mental activity until it is worked out. This is what we have seen in conversion. The ideal dawns ; the will is exercised in its direction ; failing, there is unrest and distress ; finally the ideal is unexpectedly realised. The function of the will in conver- sion, then, seems to be to give point and direction to the unconscious processes of growth, which, in turn, work out and give back to clear consciousness the revelation striven after. It is instructive to notice, as an illustration of how unconscious cerebral activity works out new changes, the instances in which the change of heart has been brought about during sleep. There are four such among our number. This is representative : F., lo. ' Some- thing said by the minister at a funeral brought me under deep conviction. After going to bed I wept long and bitterly, and asked God to forgive my sins. The next morning I was in a new world. What I experienced can only be known by one who has been born of the ^ For numerous instances of ' unconscious cerebration,' see an article by Clias. M. ChWi, American Journal of Psychology, V., p. 249, and Car- penter, Mental Physiology, chap. xiii. Some are given also in chap. xi. following. - Theodate Smith, ' The Motor Element in Memory,' American Journal of Psychology, 1896. CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 113 Spirit' This falls in line with the familiar instance of trying to solve some problem at night, and finding in the morning that the brain has done the rest during sleep. A music teacher of the writer's acquaintance says to his pupils, ' Just keep on trying, and some day all of a sudden you will find yourself playing.' The 'agonising to enter in' may often be the only way to the new insight, and a definite cause in bringing it about. ' Perhaps the longing to be so Helps make the soul immortal.' In so far as this principle applies, it should emphasise for the religious teacher, or one in spiritual difficulty, the precept of patience, and should bring hope at the point of discouragement. Let one do all in his power, and the nervous system will do the rest ; or, said in another way, ' man's extremity is God's opportunity.' This seems to be one of the central principles underlying the philo- sophy of Browning : — ' All we have willed, or hoped, or dreamed of good shall exist ; Not its semblance, but itself. . . .' ' The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard. The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky, Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ; Enough that he heard it once ; we shall hear it by-and-by.' '. . . Have we withered or agonised ? Why else was the pause prolonged, but that singing might issue thence ? ' Although the exercise of the will is an important element in conversion, we are confronted with the paradox, pointed out in the last chapter, that in the same persons who strive toward the higher life, self- surrender is often necessary before the sense of assur- ance comes. The personal will must be given up. In many cases relief persistently refuses to come until the person ceases to resist, or to make an effort in the direc- H . 114 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION tion he desires to go. F., 19. ' I had two years of doubts arid questionings. It was my disposition to look at everything intellectually. I found I must give myself up into Christ's hands. I stopped thinking about puzzling questions ; I had faith in Him, and found peace.' F., 13. 'After seven days of anxious thought and medi- tation, I gave my heart to God, and He sent peace. The feeling came — how I cannot tell' M., 1 5. ' After I had done everything in my power, it seemed that the change took place ; I saw I had depended too much on my own power,' M., 45. ' All at once it occurred to me that I might be saved, too, if I would stop trying to do it all myself, and follow Jesus. I determined right then to test His power and love ; while at the altar I determined to live a Christian life the remainder of my days, whether I felt forgiven or not. Somehow, I lost my load.' M., 15. 'I finally ceased to resist, and gave myself up, though it was a hard struggle. Gradually the feeling came over me that I had done my part, and God was willing to do His.' At this point, we naturally feel ourselves closest to the mystery in conversion, and face to face with that aspect of the question where explanation, if it avails for anything, must throw some light on the whole process. Why can the new insight not be attained through one's effort ? What is the new life which bursts forth at the point of self-surrender? What has faith to do in the process ? We shall advance two or three considerations which should lead us a little way toward the answer. The personal will is likely to fail to attain the new life, in the first place, because it may be exercised not quite in the right direction. This will become clear by making a slight variation on Figures 7 and 8 above, as shown in Figures 9 and 10. A, B, C, D, as before, are the cerebral centres, or organising centres of conscious- ness, which represent the imperfect self ; r is the true insight after which the person is feeling his or her way, toward which the scattered elements of the old per- sonality are tending, as indicated in m, n, o,p. But, in CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMIiNTS irs the nature of the case, the imperfect self cannot picture r so that it may really be the goal of his striving. The sub-conscious forces, the buddings of new life, have far outstripped the growth of mental analysis ; so that there is lifted up before him, as a cloud in a mist, an ideal towards which he longs and struggles. But he can never know r until it has blossomed out and has actually been lived. He is not able even to appreciate the tendencies of growth, in, n, o, p, by way of con- sciously helping them along. It is a corollary of the principle of unconscious cerebration, which we have just been considering, that these tendencies must remain below the possibility of analysis. Consequently, the insight striven after falls short of the true revelation. Figure 9. — Before Conversion. '\y, i,c; Figure 10. — Conversion. This aim is represented by ;'' in the figure, toward which the person sfeives, but is striving at a wrong angle. Doubtless the trying has been in the right general direction, and has helped to carry the life in the vicinity of r ; but there has been an aggravating discord between the line of personal effort and the normal trend of development. What must the person do ? He must cease trying ; he must relax, and let the nervous energy, which has been pent up and aching for some outlet of expression, seek its natural and normal channels— that is, he must fall back on the larger 'Power that makes for righteousness,' which has been welling up in his being, and let it finish in its own way the work it has begun. When the person is at last ripe for the experience, when the lines of ii6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION growth have been focused to one point, when the imperfect Hfe can no longer assert itself in the presence of the larger life that is seeking expression, the change conies, which means on the psychic side a new spiritual birth. Self- surrender, then, is often necessary in oi^der that the normal tendencies of growth may converge and flow into harmony, and that the point of new insight may be, for the person yielding, the truest organising centre of life. It is a common occurrence that the new life comes in strange and unexpected ways ; the amount of sur- prise, suppose we say, is an index of the angle between the direction of the will and the normal lines of growth. But the most vital-point in the necessity of self-sur- render has only been hinted. The exercise of the per- sonal will is an emphasis of life in terms of the imperfect self On the contrary, the elements of the old life must be swallowed up in the new synthesis. The point, r, toward which the life forces are converging, must itself become the organising centre of life. The condition shown in Figure 9 must give place to that repre- sented in Figure 10 above, i? is a new cerebral centre of organisation of nerve elements. The old brain centres, A, B, C, D, are now referred to it. From the standpoint of the mental life, r is now the ego, the new personality — in terms of which everything else is seen. As long as the old condition persisted, the imperfect self being the point of reference, the truth of new life, r, was seen objectively ; it must no longer be seen from without, however, but from within. R is to become the embodiment of the truth looked on before from the outside. I must become it, and it must become a part of me. Conscious volition, before the change of heart, is the wilful assertion that life shall still be viewed through the old port-holes rather than from a new vantage ground. It is God and sinful man striving against each other. It is at the point of self-surrender that the deadlock is broken, and the man comes forth into a new world. The act of yielding, in this point of view, is giving oneself over to tJie new life, making it the CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 117 centre of a new personality , and living, from within, the truth of it which had before been viewed objectively. We should almost be able at this point to anticipate the experiences following conversion, the newness, mingled strangeness and reality, buoyancy, joy and peace, which accompany the event of entering life on the new plane. They will be taken up, however, in the next chapter. We are in a position now to appreciate the function \ of faith in conversion. Faith is the next step after self-surrender, or even the accompaniment of it. The full assurance never comes until everything — old attach- ments, affections, animosities, any clinging to the old life, is given up. The person is completely relaxed. Then faith comes in, which means that the soul ds in a receptive attitude, that it is left open, so that the new currents of mental activity may flow together into one great stream. One throws oneself completely on the World-will, so that one may become a ' receiver of its truth and an organ of its activity.' The amount of faith exercised is an implicit recognition of the dis- crepancy between the old life and the new, or, rather, the Power which is behind the new. The heat and bustling and worry and agonising give place to a confident assurance that the larger life will issue forth. 'Be still, and know that I am God,' was Jehovah's command. A certain music teacher says to her pupils, after the thing to be done has been clearly pointed out and unsuccessfully attempted, ' Stop trying, and it will do itself Holmes disavowed having written his best poems — they were written for him, In conversion the assurance comes after the person has given up his will and thrown himself trustfully upon the larger life. CHAPTER IX THE QUALITY OF FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION There is a period just after the crisis in conversion, lasting, as the case may be, from a few hours to several months, or even years, which has as distinct a character as the period preceding. In many ways it is the exact antithesis to the pre-conversion period. In this chapter we shall have to consider its character, viewed from the standpoint of the emotional experiences. The feelings are generally directly opposed to those which precede conversion. They indicate relief from the tension and stress of the conviction period, and consequently are accompanied by the joy, happiness, lightness of heart and spiritual exaltation which naturally attend free activity and the exercise of a new power. For the sake of seeing the post-conversion phenomena fall into har- mony as we proceed, let us try to get a point of view which centrally underlies the variety of experiences. That is the thing which normally in point of develop- ment comes last, and perhaps should be left to each person after we have surveyed the ground ; but to con- sider it first will contribute to clearness as we proceed. The phenomena cluster about the birth of a new self, the organisation of nerve elements about a new centre, or, as we saw in the last chapter in Figure lo, the organ- isation of life about r, in such way that it becomes the point of reference for experience instead of A, B, C, D. So that, in considering the abstract feelings which result, the central fact for us (however incongruous it may appear with the ' unselfing,' to be discussed in the next chapter) ii8 FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 119 is the functioning of a new and exalted personality. The 'ego' is lifted up into new significance. M., IS- 'I f^lt I belonged to a new category of being, nobler and more worthy to exist' F., 12. 'The Bible was a new book to me. I read it with joy, and felt its laws, its admoni- tions and its promises were all for me.' (The respondent underscored 'me.') M., 15. 'I felt that God was my Father, and Christ my Elder Brother and Saviour.' F., 16. ' Before, God had been far off in the sky, too holy and good to let me get close to Him. Now He was a tender, loving Father, and very near. Nature seemed to feel with me.' M., 23. ' All at once light and peace came into my soul as gently as the sun coming up on a June morning. Heaven and earth seemed to meet. All was love. I was embraced in the great plan of redemption. Provision was made for me, even me. I wept often that God should love even me. I laughed that now I was the child of God, and the equal of any other creature. The best things in the world were for me as well as for anyone else.' This sense of exaltation, of a new ego, of being lifted up into the life of God, is the rule. There is a state of mind which sometimes occurs, however, that seems at first sight exactly to contradict this, viz,, that of a sense of personal unworthi- ness and humility. F., 12. 'I did not live any more, but Christ lived in me.' In the last case quoted above, the greatness of God is implied throughout, although the larger life of the ' me ' is central. The two appar- ently opposite experiences are two sides, doubtless, of the same thing. In the sense of humility, the fresh burst of life is not so much my experience as a new experi- ence ; and it is appreciated as a part of the larger life outside the self. The infinite background of r, in our figure, is the real thing rather than r itself. One of the commonest experiences after conversion, an, experience which we are able now to understand, is the sense of newness. The person is living in a new world. Old experiences are seen from a different point of view. The world bears a new face. It has likewise 120 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION a new content, a new significance. Two or three of the intenser forms of this feeling will make it clear : F., 13. ' When rising from my knees, I exclaimed, " Old things have passed away, and all things have become new ! " It was like entering another world — a new state of existence. Natural objects were gloriiied. My spiritual vision was so clarified that I saw beauty in every material object in the universe. The woods were vocal with heavenly music' M., 28. ' All day and night floods of light and glory seemed to pour through my soul, and O, how . I was .changed ! Everything became new. My horses and hogs and everybody became changed.' The newness is frequently expressed in more abstract and spiritual terms. M., 19. ' I felt an unfold- ing of truth and a revelation of God's ways. I under- went a moral and intellectual quickening.' This sense of newness is the inevitable consequence of a new centre of neural activity ; of transferring the ego to a new point of reference for old experiences, and, as we shall see, taking up new elements into its organisation. It really becomes a new self, and is often felt to be so. One person relates that on going home from a revival meeting he thought, ' Why, John , can this really be you ? ' When the thought is turned away from the self to the external world or to the content of thought and feeling, its objects become new. The general nature of the quality of the feelings can be better appreciated from a few brief quotations : M., 15. ' I experienced joy almost to weeping.' M., 15. ' I felt my face must have shone like that of Moses. I had a general feeling of buoyancy. It was the greatest joy it was ever my lot to experience.' F., 17. 'A sudden peace and rest seemed to come over me. I felt completely, perfectly, and quietly happy.' F., 18. 'The happiness was intense. I wanted to sing, but all the house was quiet' M., 12. ' I was very happy. I sang all night, and couldn't sleep.' M., 19. ' I felt relieved and filled with fresh courage.' F., 14. ' I felt as if a load were lifted from my body, and I was very happy.' FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 121 F., 16. ' I wept and laughed alternately. I was as light as if walking on air. I felt as if I had gained greater peace and happiness than I had ever expected to ex- perience.' M., 15. 'There followed a delightful feeling of reconciliation with God and love for Him.' Besides these feelings of a definite and positive nature, there is now and then a sense, of responsibility, continued struggle, anxiety about the future, and partial dis- appointment. F., 13. 'I was happy, but had a fear of doing something wrong.' M., 22. ' I felt relieved, but the props were knocked out from under me by two friends telling me I would know, when I professed only to believe. I rested pretty well in the feeling that I had done my best, and if God wanted to damn me, I could stand it.' An attempt at a rough classification of the charac- teristic feelings according to their quality gives Table XIV. The headings under which they were grouped Female. Male. Feelings following Conversion. (Per Cent. ofCa-ses.) > ei 18 14 14 14 IS II 8 17 5 9 II .1 > c Z; > .1 '> (S c ;? 35 6 3 32 16 3 22 6 12 Total. fjoy ...... - Bodily Lig.htness .... Weeping, Shouting Peace Happiness .... Relief Load lifted from Body or Heart . Acceptance and Oneness with God or Christ Calm, Subdued • . . . . Struggle, Sense of Responsibility . Partial Disappointment . 14 S 6 29 25 4 22 2 6 8 40 II 14 II II 14 II 3 3 9 44 19 18 37 31 16 8 33 7 10 18 iKS.Y.Y.y^W. Showing the relative promineme of some cliaracteristic feelings following conversion. 122 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION will be fairly clear. The words in which the experiences were described were usually the index to the groups ; but when they were graphically set forth with a variety of designations for the same experience, it was necessary to judge them for the classification. Joy and peace are distinguished in part by the intensity of the experience, the former being the stronger. The difference between joy and happiness is something like that between ' Oh, what joy ! ' and ' Aha, what happiness ! ' Of the dis- .tinction between calmness and peace, the former is written more in the minor key, containing, as it does, a slight undertone of the pain of the pre-conversion period. The last column gives the relative prominence of the feelings. Joy, peace and happiness are three of the most frequent groups. Closely akin to these are bodily lightness and weeping and shouting, in which the buoy- ancy is expressed in physical terms. This is the most common quality of feeling — a spiritual uplift, freedom and harmony. The sense of peace is the point at which this kind of feeling shades off into relief — a feeling which, with its physiological correlative, being freed from a load on the body or heart, is rather frequent. Joy and happiness seem to indicate the completed escape from the old life and a looking toward the new, while in relief there is a sufficient tang of the old to furnish terms in which to read the new. One of the most common feelings is that of acceptance and one- ness with God or Christ. The joy, the relief, and the acceptance are qualities of feeling, perhaps, which give the truest picture of what is going on in conversion — the free exercise of new powers, an escape from some- thing, and the birth into Larger Life, with the corre- sponding sense of warmth and harmony. The last three groups in the table — calmness, responsibility and partial disappointment — are relatively less frequent. The meaning of them, the old life not quite stripped off, or the new not fully realised, will be seen more clearly in the next table. FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 123 The differences between the sexes and between the revival and non-revival cases bear out the distinctions drawn heretofore, and do not need repeating. Of special significance in the table are the following points : — ^joy, the intenser emotion, is more frequent with the males, the sense of oneness and acceptance, with the females; the physiological irradiation of feeling is much greater in the revival cases, while the calmer spiritual experi- ences — peace, happiness, and the feeling of acceptance — are more characteristic of the noa-revival cases ; among the females, calmness, responsibility and partial disap- pointment, and in both sexes the sense of relief are greater among the revival cases. The comparison in the same persons of the feelings before conversion and after it is instructive. This is shown in Table XV. In general, the clean-cut, positive experiences after conversion follow the intenser pre-con- version phenomena. For example, partial disappoint- ment most often succeeds anxiety and restlessness, but Feelings before Conversion. Feelings after Con- S i SION. '■7i 1 3 ■ B tn t .2 " s a tn '^ >. 1 en <1 ■^ Oi. ^ « Joy . . . . 23 19 9 II 5 26 :S Bodily Lightness S 11 2 5 5 7 4 Weeping . 10 7 3 4 7 10 2 Peace 17 13 IS 7 S IS 19 Happiness 13 13 12 15 13 13 8 Relief 6 3 9 3 ■7 6 5 Load lifted 3 3 5 I 5 2 2 Acceptance 17 13 9 6 9 17 II Calmness . 4 I 4 I I 2 4 Struggle . 2 I I I o- Partial Disappointment 4 S II 4 I 7 Table XV. — Showing the relation between the pre- conversion and the post-conversion feelings. 124 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION never follows depression, the more intense feeling of kindred nature to anxiety. On the contrary, in regard to joy, an intense emotion, this order is exactly reversed. Again, the sense of sin and that of depression most frequently crop out after conversion as joy ; while anxiety or restlessness is most often followed by peace, both being of the milder quality. One feature of this law of sequence is the tension and recoil aspect of the feelings ; they are pent up and then break out as a definite, vivid experience. This is borne out, for ex- ample, in the column under effort, in which the numbers representing peace, calmness and partial disappointment are about the largest numbers following those three items. The indication on the surface throughout the table is that peculiarities of temperament underlie the likenesses and differences before the crisis and after it. The disposition which feels keenly before conversion reacts violently at the crisis and has the more intense experiences afterward. Those who are thrown back on themselves, and experience markedly the sense of sin and depression, are the ones who are thrown vigorously in the direction of the new life. It will be observed also that the temperament which shuts itself against new influences, as evidenced by resistance before con- version, rarely experiences joy ; while, on the contrary, a more open nature, as 'indicated by prayer and effort, feels joy and acceptance afterward. The correspondences between post-conversion feelings and the experiences at the point of conversion — self- surrender, forgiveness, etc. — were also worked out. They corroborate the results given above. In both sets of comparisons there are hints of several laws of vital significance. On account of the fewness of the cases, however, these cannot be relied on sufficiently to develop ; if there were a thousand records from which to generalise, instead of two hundred, some of the hints would doubt- less attain a high degree of certainty, and would accord- ingly throw further light into the nature of the process of conversion. CHAPTER X THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE We have now to ask, What are the distinctive things in the new Hfe which set it off against the old ? In what, more in detail, does the sense of its newness consist ? And what are the added elements, if any, which have come into it ? For the sake of clearness in discussing the feelings, we anticipated in the last chapter the central fact in the change of heart, namely, the' organisation of life about a new centre. This brings along with it two results already noticed ; first, the lifting up of the new personality into great significance ; and, secondly, the sense of newness with which the world of objects and even the personality itself is viewed. Another result equally common is the sense of reality with which the new world presented to consciousness is clothed. Incident on the birth of the ' I ' is the awakening of the sense of mineness. The way in which new and old things are filled with meaning so that the person has a sense of possession of them and participation in them will be best appreciated by a few typical examples : F., 14. ' I attended church and engaged in prayer with a new feeling. The Bible was more precious, and prayer a comfort and joy.' F., 14. 'In seeing persons confess their faith I felt like asking if they knew what a serious step it was, and how they must act' F., 12. ' Before, I had studied for praise ; now, because it was a duty. I had prayed at night ; now I went to God at any time. I began to reflect on the Bible and to perform acts of 125 126 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION self-denial. All these things were now a part of me.' M., i8. ' I loved to read the Bible now. Its truths were so interesting which before had been insipid.' F., 14. ' God was '>ny Father and heaven my home.' M., 15. ' For a long time I tried to realise my ideal, quite different from the silken Christianity of to-day.' F., 13. ' The truths of the Bible seemed meant for me. Prayers seemed real petitions and thanksgiving.' Here is one in the process of making. ' I dreaded to go to church for fear I could not make the whole thing vital. I prayed about it before going, and made constant effort to make it so.' The important thing in these quotations is the way in which things are now lifted above the dead level of commonplaceness, or, rather, how the new ' ego ' has emerged into clearer consciousness, so that it feels the relation existing between it and its spiritual environ- ment. It feels its content as real and as mine. It is significant that it is so frequently the acts of common performance, the prayers, church-going, Bible-reading, the old passages of Scripture and sermons, which before had passed through the mind without arousing any warmth or sense of possession, which have vitality. It is as if that which had before existed as reflexes in the lower nerve centres had been taken up as factors in higher cerebral activity ; or, if we say the same thing in terms of psychic activity, it is as if the possible new life had been lingering in the subliminal consciousness, and even rising up as a disturbing and perplexing factor in the mind, and had now found a place in clear consciousness. We now come upon an interesting anomaly. Heretofore we have been considering the new life in terms of an exalted selfhood. The ' me ' has become the point of reference for the larger world of experience. But there is clearly bound up in the process a self- forgetfulness, a sympathetic outgoing which apparently exactly contradicts the exaltation of self we have considered. So that now we have to view THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 127 Conversion as a Process of Unselfing. In the first place, let us get a clear notion of what the respondents say. M., 15. ' The chief change was in my inmost purpose. I was no longer self-centered. The change was not complete, but there was a deep under- current of unselfishness.' F., 12. 'The change made me very affectionate, while before I was cold to my parents.' M., 14. ' I felt it my duty after that to be polite and sym- pathetic. My enemies were changed to friends.' M., 18. ' My motive to chase worldly riches was changed to that of saving others. I even made mistakes through altruism.' In these instances we see how the personality is expressing itself, and going out sym- pathetically, and knitting itself into the world about it. As an emphasis of this same tendency, there is very often a turning back upon the self in scorn and, in preference, seeking the larger life. This results in numerous acts of self-denial, self-sacrifice and self- abnegation. In classifying the facts of the changed relation to the objective world, they fell into three groups depending on the object of attachment, closer relations to persons, to nature, and to God or Christ, (i.) Relation to persons, — F., 13. ' I began to work for others ; immediately I was anxious that all should experience the same.' F., 17. ' I had more tender feeling toward my family and friends.' F., 16. 'I spoke at once to a person with whom I had been angry. I felt for everyone, and loved my friends better.' M., 19. ' I felt everybody to be my friend.' (2.) Relation to nature. — M., 16. ' The stars never have appeared so bright as that night going home.' M., [3. ' I had a special feeling of reverence toward nature.' F,, 12. 'I seemed to see God's great- ness in nature.' (3.) Relation to God or Christ. — F., 11. ' God was not afar off; He was my Father, and Christ my Elder Brother.' F., 14. 'Fear of God was gone. I saw He was the greatest Friend one can have.' M., THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 14. 'I felt very near to my God.' M., 15. 'I felt in harmony with everybody, and all creation and its Creator.' The result of tabulating the cases is shown in Table XVL It should be noticed in these percen- tages, as in all the preceding, that they express the lowest possible estimate, since they represent the number of cases only in which the phenomenon was sufficiently prominent to receive explicit mention. Females. Male.s. Desire to Help Others Love for Others Closer Relation to Nature .... Clo.ser Relation to God ..... Closer Relation to Christ 28 42 43 6 28 42 34 43 4 Tablis XVI. — Showing the percentage of cases in which a changed relation to God, nature and persons was vientioned as the result of conversion. Allowing for this, and for imperfect records, we should say that about one-half the persons experience, as the result of conversion, a closer relation to God. It is clear, from the table, that in a large per cent, of cases an immediate result of conversion is to call the person out from himself into active sympathy with the ivorld outside. How does this principle of conversion as an unselfing harmonise with the equally obvious one of conversion as the sense of the new worth of the self? In the first place, the attachment to the world of nature and of spiritual truth grows out of the condition, doubtless, that the new life is a centre of activity, and it must seek an object of its expression. We have seen that the new personality is not only an activity, but a con- scious activity. As such it must objectify itself. Why it selects just these objects — God, persons, the beauty of natural objects — instead of any others, we shall see more clearly in another connection. In the second place, it appears that the outcrops of self-appreciation and of THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 129 altruism are two aspects of the same thing, in the same way that self-exaltation and humility may be two mani- festations of one underlying condition. If the thing which -comes up in consciousness is the fact of the new powers and freedom, the result obtains that the person- ality feels its worth and exults in its new life. Con- sciousness may, on the contrary, be directed to the larger life, of which it has become an organic part, and feel most vividly its otherness. It is therefore a matter of selection and emphasis of two things intimately bound together. Let us take, for example, the complex notion of the changed relation of the person and God. In one case the emphasis makes it read, ' God is now my Father,' with the result that the person ' seems to belong to a new order of being,' and 'the best things in the world are for me as well as for anyone else.' Another person, however, has a different shading of emotion, thus : ' God is my Father', in which case may follow the loving service and devotion which are so often expressed. Sometimes self-exaltation is the more pro- minent element, sometimes altruism ; often they are blended. Now and then they are thrown into gro- tesque antithesis as in the following instance of a woman converted at 18 : 'I was a new creature in Christ Jesus. Everything seemed heavenly rather than earthly ; every- thing was so lovely. I had a love for everybody. It was such a blessed experience ! Going home I walked on the curbstone rather than walk or talk with ungodly people.' In this case the two elements stand out separ- ately and in contradiction. Perhaps we can rightly understand the presence of such opposite feelings in the individual only by viewing them as instinctive outcrops whose differentiation has been exaggerated through racial experience passed on by heredity, and which break out in individuals in unreasoned and in- harmonious relation. Whether seen from the point of view of the race or the individual, it seems that the heightened worth of self and the altruistic impulses in conversion are closely bound up together, and the difference^ I i 130 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION between them lie simply in the different content of con- sciousness, determined by the direction in which it is turned. The central fact underlying both is the formation of a new ego, a fresh point of reference for mental states. From the standpoint of development, the essential thing under these two aspects of the new life is the breaking of the shell that has bound the self in its narrow limits, the emerging into the life of the social whole, the going out lovingly and sympathetically as a factor in society, the reaching out into, and becoming one with, the Power that Makes for Righteousness, in short, the bursting the limits of self and being born into a larger life. This expresses itself directly in the altruistic impulses of conversion. The other aspect, that of self-appreciation, is doubtless the sudden ripening in the individual of some of the more primal instincts — pleasure in free activity, self-preservation, the desire for larger life — but along with sudden self-realisation there comes the added thing, the necessary condition of either a social or spiritual community, the birth of the self into the larger world. It is of extreme significance to note that this birth usually comes at about the time in life when it is the custom for youths to be thrown into society, into contact with new educational and religious influ- ences, and also at the time when the physiological awakening has announced the possibility of parenthood and citizenship. Thus we are now in a position to see that in conversion the element which is most fundamental from the standpoint of priority is the awakening of self- consciousness, while the essential factor from the standpoint of development is the process of unselfing. We see, then, that in a certain true sense the altruistic instincts are an added element in consciousness. This falls in line with other facts, and suggests that we view Conversion as the Birth of New Powers. The facts appear as if, at the time of conversion, there had been the liberation of fresh energy, or as if THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 131 new streams had flowed into consciousness. We have in one way and another been coming upon the evidences in the preceding pages. Let us look for a moment at some of the facts. In the following quotations there is a rich and varied suggestiveness of new elements, mental clarification, spiritual insight, volitional en- thusiasms, emotional awakenings, deepened motives, that have been turned loose in consciousness: F., 12. ' I wanted to talk of Christ everywhere, and I received power to talk of Him I had never before possessed. I seemed a new creature.' F., 12. 'I wanted to help get others to come.' M., 14. ' I felt my life given to spiritual actions.' M., 12. 'I became more studious.' M., 18. ' The opening of my spiritual eyes was the great event ; there was no great change otherwise. I had always done as well as I knew.' F., 19. 'Difficult problems (life problems) became more simple and easy to believe.' M., 19. ' I thought now on the goodness of God and His promises.' F., 13. 'I felt right and wrong for the first time. Passages of Scripture had new meaning. I now meditated on what to do.' M., — . 'O, what a change ! Church became more attractive ; I saw some sense in the minister's talks, which before were meaning- less. I was at peace with everybody. I had periods of supplication to know God's will' M., 18. 'People would have noticed little change, but I tried harder to be careful in word and work.' F., 16. ' Life was the same, for I had been brought up in Christian habits ; but now there was a spring of happiness and love within that I had not possessed before.' In the follow- ing instance, several of the different elements mentioned above are combined : M., 23. ' I do not know that my outward conduct was much different from what it had been for two years previously, except that I had a liberty, a freedom, a joy, that I had not before. My general health was much improved. I at once began to study the best books and to seek the best things, to plan to be something for God. I read the Bible with more delight. I wanted others to know I was a 132 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Christian. I worked hard, played hard, did everything with enthusiasm and reason for the glory of my Master.' What shall we say of this awakening of new powers and activities? In former years it was said that the person had been ' born of the Spirit,' or ' endued with power from on high,' a point of view which, from our present standpoint, seems entirely accurate. It is as if brain areas which had lain dormant had now suddenly come into activity — as if their stored-up energy had been liberated, and now began to function. The growth of consciousness is, in the rough, parallel with the increase of associational fibres in the cerebrum, which condition the bringing together of the different ideational centres in the brain. "At conversion the conditions are as they would be if the various areas were suddenly struck into harmony. If we take into account what was observed in a previous section, that those things which now come into clear consciousness are often the hitherto unnoticed factors in the habitual life, the interpretation seems to be that now suddenly the reflexes in the lower nerve centres are connected by a higher arc with the cerebral reflexes, and so have become elements in clear con- sciousness. Through the processes of growth, the various brain areas have been lifted to such a potential that they need only to have their equilibrium destroyed to flow into unison, and so bring a flood of latent energy through the new organising centre of consciousness, apparently entirely incompatible with anything that had been present before. In conversion, accordingly, the new factors may be simply new to consciousness, but factors which had been already latent in the mental life. This is a point of view which seems to explain the facts. As an illustration of its truth, it is instructive to notice a case or two in which the results of conversion are incompatible with the influences brought to bear — in which the effect is greater than the apparent cause. M., 15. ' I got water from a bad well, instead of a more distant, better one, and allowed the deception. It was found out, and struck at my pet virtue, truthfulness. THE CHARACTER OR THE NEW LIFE 133 " Deception " sounded in my ears during the next ten days whenever I was mentally unoccupied. At the end of ten days I shut myself in my room. I called myself a hypocrite, and prayed. " Jesus, take me," is all I said. As I walked across the room it came to me that I was sincere and that my prayer was real, and I believed my acceptance with God. . . . After this I was con- scientious to do everything that was right— not chiefly to tell the truth. The whole Right, as a loving duty to God, became my standard, while before other duties had had a secondary value.' This is an example, doubtless, of following up one associational path toward the possible new ego, and finally reaching that point toward which all the lines of spiritual tendency converge. The sense of acceptance is the point at which they all flow together. The result is apparently larger than the con- ditions which lead up to it. It is like freeing one petal, and thereby helping the whole flower to unfold. This point of view enables us likewise to understand the result of conversion as a giving rise, in so short a time, to Life on a Higher Plane. It is a process of realising the possibilities of growth ; of making a draft on the latent energies of the nervous system, stored up through racial activity and in the individual life up to this period, which might otherwise have lain dormant always. From this point of view we are ready to accept the strange transformations of character from evil to goodness, and the sudden uplifts which raise life to a higher plane, of which the following are fair instances: M., 19. 'The most prominent sins immediately came under the power of the new life. I was literally changed in an instant from a dishonest to an honest man.' M., 23. ' I experienced a complete change of conduct ; I left off the old habits of drink and profanity without effort' M., 37. 'The old will that made me suffer was mine; now I cared not about my 134 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION will, but God's.' M., 19. ' The change was marked and radical. I had feared God, now I loved Him. I did not rest in ceremonies, except as a means of growth.' F., 18. 'Before conversion I observed all the religious customs, but without interest ; they were all alike to me. Now I did them with spirit and interest. I took an interest in humanity and all the things about me.' So they go, giving evidence usually of a more earnest, joyous, active life, as shown in deepened interest in the conventional religious observances, meditation, private prayer, positive religious striving, performance of duty, the renovation of religious motives, leaving off old habits, and the like. When the change is so complete that the self be- comes a point of reference for experiences, the old life has really ceased to be, except as a contributing or a disturbing element in the new. We shall have ample evidence in the sequel that it does still live in the back- ground, and will make itself felt, if the new life weakens before it becomes thoroughly established — before the nervous reflexes which correspond to the new self-hood have become deeply ingrained and habitual. But as long as the new self-hood is maintained, as long as there is sufificient tension in the nervous system to keep it intact, until it becomes weak and staggers, the old life does not exist as a sensible factor in consciousness. The available supply of nervous energy flows only along the new channels ; the old channels are accord- ingly as if dammed up, since their usual functioning has been cut off. The old elements in consciousness, unless they fall in line with the new and reinforce them, are annulled. The new 'stream of consciousness' sweeps things before it, and old sins are washed away. CHAPTER XI CONVERSION AS A NORMAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE As we have proceeded, we have seen the facts of con- version falling together more and more in such a way as to suggest a reading of the whole experience as a natural psychological process. Before we go on to an interpretation of it as a whole, it will be of advantage if we are convinced still further, one way or the other, whether or not it is explainable in terms of the normal mental activities which function in common experience. One of the best means will be to inquire whether there are, among the so-called natural {i.e., non-religious) experiences, phenomena analogous to those which appear in each stage of conversion. With this in view, the following list of questions was sent out : — ' {a) Describe any faults or acts you have committed which you knew at the time were wrong. Why did you do them? ' {U) What sudden awakening of power have you noticed in yourself, in others, or in animals — speaking, singing, playing, loving, hating, reasoning, etc. ? How sudden was it ? How do you explain it ? '(c) Describe any sudden change which has come into your character or in your attitude toward things or persons. How and why did it occur ? ' id) Have you ever had a time of great uncertainty which of two possible courses to pursue — in choosing a calling, in love, whether to do an act or not, etc.? Describe accurately and minutely your feelings pre- ceding, during, and after the struggle? 135 134 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION will, but God's.' M., 19. ' The change was marked and radical. I had feared God, now I loved Him. I did not rest in ceremonies, except as a means of growth.' F., 18. 'Before conversion I observed all the religious customs, but without interest ; they were all alike to me. Now I did them with spirit and interest. I took an interest in humanity and all the things about me.' So they go, giving evidence usually of a more earnest, joyous, active life, as shown in deepened interest in the conventional religious observances, meditation, private prayer, positive religious striving, performance of duty, the renovation of religious motives, leaving off old habits, and the like. When the change is so complete that the self be- comes a point of reference for experiences, the old life has really ceased to be, except as a contributing or a disturbing element in the new. We shall have ample evidence in the sequel that it does still live in the back- ground, and will make itself felt, if the new life weakens before it becomes thoroughly established — before the nervous reflexes which correspond to the new self-hood have become deeply ingrained and habitual. But as long as the new self-hood is maintained, as long as there is sufificient tension in the nervous system to keep it intact, until it becomes weak and staggers, the old life does not exist as a sensible factor in consciousness. The available supply of nervous energy flows only along the new channels ; the old channels are accord- ingly as if dammed up, since their usual functioning has been cut off. The old elements in consciousness, unless they fall in line with the new and reinforce them, are annulled. The new 'stream of consciousness' sweeps things before it, and old sins are washed away. CHAPTER XI CONVERSION AS A NORMAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE As we have proceeded, we have seen the facts of con- version falling together more and more in such a way as to suggest a reading of the whole experience as a natural psychological process. Before we go on to an interpretation of it as a v/hole, it will be of advantage if we are convinced still further, one way or the other, whether or not it is explainable in terms of the normal mental activities which function in common experience. One of the best means will be to inquire whether there are, among the so-called natural (i.e., non-religious) experiences, phenomena analogous to those which appear in each stage of conversion. With this in view, the following list of questions was sent out : — '{a) Describe any faults or acts you have committed which you knew at the time were wrong. Why did you do them? ' (b) What sudden awakening of power have you noticed in yourself, in others, or in animals — speaking, singing, playing, loving, hating, reasoning, etc. ? How sudden was it ? How do you explain it ? ' {c) Describe any sudden change which has come into your character or in your attitude toward things or persons. How and why did it occur? ' {d) Have you ever had a time of great uncertainty which of two possible courses to pursue — in choosing a calling, in love, whether to do an act or not, etc.? Describe accurately and minutely your feelings "pre- ceding, during, and after the struggle? 135 136 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION '{e) If you have ever broken a habit, describe all the accompanying experiences and feelings.' The questions brought in a large mass of valuable data. A few illustrations are appended to show certain features similar to the typical ones in conversion. (a) Depression and Joy. The feelings of pain, unhappiness and depression accompanying uncertainty in the presence of two or more alternatives of conduct or attachment, and the final joy and lightness of heart after the decision, illus- trate, on the one hand, the feelings during conviction, and, on the other, those after the crisis. F. ' For a year or more I had something on my mind which I felt I ought to tell mother. At last I came to feel that I could not stand it any longer, and that I must do something to relieve me of this constant feeling that I ought. I felt very nervous and worried ; I was determined to tell her, but felt afraid my courage would fail. With my heart beating very fast, I followed her to her room. I felt so relieved when it was over I hurried to my room and laughed and cried at intervals. I still felt nervous, and trembled somewhat for a little while afterward. After that I seemed to forget everything connected with my old wrong, and I felt that I had gained a great victory over myself.' F. ' When 14, I was undecided whether to go away from home to school, or to public school at home. I used to think about it continually, until I lost my appetite, and became so cross and fretful that my brothers told me that I had better go to T , away from home, as I was a little crank. I decided to go away ; and after I had once decided, it seemed as if a great load had left me, and I was free again.' F. ' I was uncertain about choosing a profession. I was in a state of perplexity and restlessness ; I could not lie down to restful sleep. I felt to a certain degree de- pressed. I was anxious for a decision, because I knew it must come. When the struggle was ended, a feeling CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 137 of relief and rest came ; it almost seemed as if I had entered a new world.' F. ' A year ago I was uncertain whether to break friendship with a girl acquaintance. I thought she exerted a harmful influence, but I liked her very much. It took over a week to make the de- cision ; all that time I had fear and depression, I could not sleep well, and lost my appetite One night, as I lay in bed, I felt I must decide. For a few moments there was a struggle in my mind that almost amounted to pain. Then I resolved to break off the friendship. After the struggle I felt a sense of weariness as well as of peace. I felt just as if I wanted to rest awhile, and soon fell asleep.' F. ' Since conversion I have had the same feelings when trying to decide some important question. After the decision is made, in trying to find which way is best, there comes the same peace and rest.' It is seen that, in these cases of uncertainty and relief, both the bodily and mental accompaniments are the same as those preceding and after conversion. Conver- sion we have interpretated, in one sense, as the conflict of the higher and lower selves, between which the life is ground until the decision comes, after which there is joy and peace. {b) Sudden Awakenings. These instances of sudden and apparently unaccount- able awakenings of power and insight are analogous to the larger spiritual awakenings : ' A little boy four years old could not talk ; he made queer sounds for different objects. All at once he began to talk, and said his words plainly ; he could soon say everything he heard.' 'A little girl I knew well could not sing a note or carry a tune. Suddenly, one day, she came in singing " Sweet Marie" in sweet, clear voice.' F. ' I was very anxious to learn to play the piano, and would spend hours at the instrument. One day I suddenly found I could play a little waltz my sister had given me. This incited me to try another piece, and I found I could play that. F. 138 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION ' I tried to learn to mount and dismount a bicycle, until it seemed to me there was no use in trying any more. All at once, one night, I found I could do both easily.' F. ' I studied physics under a good teacher, but could not see into it. I went home one day feeling sick and discouraged with the problem : Why do we see our- selves upside down in a spoon? I studied over it for an hour, and it was dark. Suddenly it seemed lighter ; then I saw the reason as clearly as I ever did anything. I felt so glad ; and the physics problem was settled for- ever in my mind. I liked the study, and could under- stand it. I cannot explain why it was.' F. 'At 14 I studied mensuration ; I thought I never could under- stand it, and felt quite discouraged. After hearing a pupil recite one day, the power to do it came like a flash, and it became my favourite study.' F. ' I could not understand subtraction in algebra ; I could not even do the examples mechanically, I failed every day in it. Suddenly one day, while working alone, it dawned on me, and since then I have had no trouble. It is the easiest thing in algebra now.' M. ' My students and I had worked several days on a problem in geometry. One night I went to bed, after trying again and failing. The next morning, on awakening, the solution of the problem was so distinct before my mind, I saw it in visual terms.' These cases illustrate 'spontaneous awakening ' follow- ing positive effort, in which we have supposed that un- conscious cerebral activity has completed the result and given it back to consciousness. The experiences which precede the awakening are similar to the sense oi incom- pleteness. Occasionally, even, in these relatively mild incidents, they deepen into something akin to the sense of sin, as in the following : F., ' When grandmother died, everything seemed so dull and dreary, as if a dark cloud hung over me. I couldn't seem to get comfort from anyone, or even from prayer. When I prayed, the words had no meaning at all. I was in this condition more than a month, when suddenly CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 139 the cloud broke away, and I found comfort in my Bible.' It often occurs that the whole nature blossoms out suddenly, when there are apparently no religious ele- ments involved, just as when the change is of a distinctly religious character. The following is one of four equally striking cases reported by President C. G. Baldwin : ' Boy of seventeen ; read in the second reader, and took no other work. Teachers before had whipped him three or four times a day. He was up to all mischief^threw shot and paper balls, pinched his neighbours, crawled upon the floor under the girls' seats, etc., etc. His father had no control over him. Not knowing what to do, I paid no attention to him, but let him run about just as a dog. The children ceased to laugh at him; he cut no figure. One day I was hearing the class in partial pay- ments, and urged them to learn the rule. They objected strenuously on the ground of time. Just then this boy threw a paper ball past my ear, and reminded me of his existence. I turned on him and said, " There's Charlie N , he could learn that rule in fifteen minutes." He turned towards me eagerly and asked what it was. " I told him, and he, said, " Let me try." When the time was up he went through it to the end. I said, "There ! I told you so." He sat down collapsed, like a wilted cabbage leaf At recess he came to me and asked to study arithmetic. He got his book and went to work. He never made any trouble after that, and was a good student in all lines, helpful and useful as any normal boy. I never had occasion to rebuke him in the three years I taught there, except once for whispering too loudly, and that brought the tears to his eyes that he had lost my confidence even for a moment ! ' It seems highly probable that in such instances unassociated nerve elements are ripe to be struck into harmony and lifted into cerebral co-ordination. The final act by which the nerve currents flowed into new, related channels apparently drafted off the energy of other areas, and left the boy exhausted for the moment. Instances I40 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION are likewise on record in religious conversion in which the person is left prone and helpless. In one of the cases above, the young woman felt at peace, but just as if she wanted to rest. That the pupil should have become a good student in all lines is analogous to the wholeness of the change in conversion. If our analysis of the conditions underlying the change is true, this aspect might.be expressed thus: a stimulus, which arouses the attention at the same time that it awakens native tendencies of nervous discharge, gives rise to a discharge from the lower reflex arcs into a higher cerebral arc {i.e., awakens an idea). Tension is produced in a new (cerebral) area of the nervous system, which becomes the centre of discharge. Other brain areas, in so far as they are connected by associational paths with this one, likewise bring their contribution to consciousness, so that the whole of consciousness is organised about the new centre, and the entire person- ality is involved. ic) Sudden Changes in Emotional A ttitude. Even more mysterious than the last group of in- stances are the cases in which an unexpected revulsion of feeling occurs, usually without any very marked cause, and often with no apparent antecedent. These seem to be numerous, and to extend through the whole range of feelings from mere tastes for foods to attachments and repulsions which involve the entire nature. F. ' I (jisliked bananas very much. One day, on tasting one, I found that I liked it, and since then I cannot get enough of them. It was just the same with cooked onions.' F. ' When about 9 I was very fond of bananas. My cousin gave me all I could eat, and I became sick at my stomach. After that I had the same sick feeling whenever I saw bananas.' F. ' I never could bear the taste of turkey. Two years ago, I was visiting, and had to take it, or be rude. ' I have liked it ever since.' M. ' To one particular fellow in CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 141 our club I took a great dislike. He never did anything to me. He always treated me kindly. I never knew why I disliked him.' F. ' I knew a girl whom I thought a great deal of. One day I happened to think of her, and just then I felt that I didn't like her at all. It seemed strange to me, and I thought I could not dislike her ; but all her bad traits stood out before me, and I couldn't see anything in her to like.' F. ' I once had a teacher whom I simply detested. I disliked her so much that I thought of her constantly. One day I happened to pass her in the hall. I do not know what she did. In fact, I think she did nothing, but just as quickly as she passed me my hatred turned to love. I know it sounds foolish to speak of loving anyone like that, but I positively adored her.' F. ' My husband was jealous of my love for an invalid sister, who had lost her health for me, and he forced me to leave her. I went back to her with my baby, and was able, by teaching music, to make a scanty living for three. Husband begged me to return West, but I refused, although I was heavily burdened. My judgment told me to stay, but my heart yearned after him. I went to God and wrestled half the' night. At two o'clock peace came. He took away my love for my husband. It left me in an instant, and has never returned. Now I feel free.' These quotations contain evidence on the surface that something has been happening underneath in sub-consciousness. They are similar to the mys- terious transformations in religious emotion, which completely change one's affections and attachments. {d) Breaking Habits. Very similar in all the phenomena connected with it to that type of conversion which follows waywardness, is the breaking of habits. The instances are numerous, and include the conquering of habits or propensities in children and animals, in which the new attitude is largely externally induced, and those also in which the 142 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION volitions play an active part. ' I knew of a horse which delighted in kicking, biting, and running away. Its owner was afraid to feed it, and gave it away. The new owner geared the horse to drive it home. It tried to kick. He gave it a good beating, and after that he never had any trouble with it. He would even let it stand without tying.' ' Uncle had a horse which was a great favourite, and as gentle and docile as could be. He was once frightened by a fire-engine, and after that he became so vicious that it was not safe to drive him.' M. 'When about 5 I displayed a violent temper. One day, in unrestrained rage, I chased my next older brother around the yard and into the house, hurling things at him like a young gorilla. My mother was so concerned about me that she wept (she was not the sort of woman to "cry") in genuine discouragement, and said she didn't know but I would have to go to the reform school. I truly repented. After a short nap, I sought h^r good-will, and ever afterward was noted for obedience and docility.' ' The child of my friend was much spoiled. While I was with him, the child became unmanageable. The father held him firmly several hours. At last the child stopped kicking and crying and said, " Papa, I love you," and was good after that' M. ' For years I had indulged in the habit of profanity. When 20, I was elected teacher of a country school, and I felt I ought to set a good example to my pupils. About the same time, the reading of the Chautauquan course set me to thinking, and led me to adopt a higher ideal. As soon as the foolishness of the habit was brought to my notice, I made one firm resolve, and the battle was won.' F. ' When I was about 40, I tried to quit smoking, but the desire was on me, and had me in its power. I cried and prayed and promised God to quit, but could not. I had smoked for 15 years. When I was 53, as I sat by the fire one day smok- ing, a voice came to me. I did not hear it with my ears, but more as a dream or sort of double think. It said, " Louisa, lay down smoking." At once I replied, CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 143 "Will you take the desire away?" But it only kept saying, " Louisa, lay down smoking." Then I got up, laid my pipe on the mantelshelf, and never smoked again, or had any desire to. The desire was gone as though I had never known it or touched tobacco. The sight of others smoking and the smell of smoke never gave me the least wish to touch it again.' In the breaking of habits there is clearly a conflict between the old habitual course of action and a new set of nervous discharges which are trying to establish themselves. In the midst of the conflict there is pain. The continued trying, together with a corresponding cerebral growth in the direction of the effort, or of the external influence, cause the energy finally to shoot into the new direction, and the new thing is accom- plished. In the last two instances above, one sees that at the critical point in the change the person is either an actor or largely an observer, as was true in conver- sion. In the last case, the ripening has . gone on unconsciously, so that the final impulse comes to consciousness as something from without, as a sort of voice. The ' double think ' seems to indicate that both courses of action — the old habitual one and the one just sprouting — have worth to consciousness at the same time. In these common experiences we find analogies to all the steps of conversion, even the most unaccountable and mysterious. Now let us think clearly on the significance of them. They do not explain conversion. The breaking of a habit, as far as ultimate explanation goes, is itself as mysterious as anything that happens in consciousness. These facts do make intelligible, however, the processes involved in conversion in the same way that any natural phenomena come to be understood. They help us to" see a little way into the mental operations concerned in conversion. They also make it clear that, however inexplicable, the facts of con- version are manifestations of natural processes. . We accept them as natural laws, because we see them Missing Page Missing Page 146 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION moves on towards a period of self-consciousness. There is a world outside the self, a world-order and social organism whose demands begin to press in on the dawning consciousness. At first he is dimly conscious of its existence and its demands. He gropes after it, often painfully, to grasp its significance, and feels his way towards an appreciation of its worth and spiritual content. It is the larger world -consciousness now pressing in on the individual consciousness. Often it breaks in suddenly and becomes a great new revelation. This is the first aspect of conversion : the person emerges from a smaller, limited world uf existence into a larger world of being. His life becomes swallowed up in a larger whole. There is often a clash between the individual will and the social will, between the person's own insight and the spiritul order of which he is unconsciously a part. In the life outside of him, the standard is already set when he comes on the scene. It is a complex order which has been calling out, meanwhile, his undeveloped self in this way and that. His own tastes and desires, together with chance forces in the environment which are unduly strong, may shape the growing self out of tune with the larger established order. When the friction comes, it belongs to his nature to insist on himself It is part of his oldest and deepest-seated instinct to preserve his own integrity. But it is a part of Nature's way to crush that which is out of harmony with herself The social will is stronger, and the individual must at last sur- render himself to it. In its other aspect, then, conversion is the surrender of the personal will to be guided by the larger forces of which it is a pa7't. These two aspects are often mingled. In both there is much in conimon. There is a sudden revelation and recognition of a higher order than that of the personal will. The sympathies follow the direction of the new insight, and the convert transfers the centre of life and activity from the part to the whole. With new insight comes new beauty. Beauty and worth awaken love — love for parents, A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 147 kindred, kind, society, cosmic order, truth and spiritual-, life. The individual learns to transfer himself from a \ centre of self-activity into an organ of revelation of\ universal being, and to live a life of affection for andl oneness with the larger life outside. As a necessary^ condition of the spiritual awakening is the birth of fresh activity and of a larger self-consciousness, which often assert themselves as the dominant elements in consciousness. ^ The period of adolescence is naturally the time for the awakening into the larger life. We have seen in an - earlier chapter that conversion is fairly coincident in general with most rapid bodily growth and with the awakening on the intellectual side. There appeared to be a connection between puberty and conversion among people in the mass, although conversion follows the physiological changes by a little. Biologically con- sidered, the central thing underlying all these phenomena seems to be the birth of the reproductive life. That is the time when the person begins vitally and physio- logically to reach out and find his life in another. It is the announcement, on the physical side, that one is gaining capacity to enter into the social whole through the avenue of the family. We shall see later that at the present stage in evolution the reproductive instinct has a negative rather than a positive significance as a factor in religion ; but in its biological import it con- ditions, in a certain sense, the great awakening on the physiological, psychical and spiritual sides which comes in adolescence. The lives of two persons united in the conjugal relation, each making demands on the other, and living for each other ; and later their offspring callino- out the activities and affection of the parents — this con- stitutes the family, the centre of organised life which reflects the whole social order. Family life furnishes the opportunity and necessity for the development of the individual in many new' directions. He must be a defender of self and offspring, and so must grow strong physically ; he must provide, consequently must possess 148 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION mental acumen ; he must utilise the natural objects about him in securing shelter, food and clothing, which necessity leads him into a knowledge of the natural order, and so he appreciates the truths of nature; he emerges suddenly into a world in which there are other men, and must face afresh the moral order with its manifold duties and obligations ; the courting instinct and the personal adornments and graces necessary for securing and maintaining a mate help to awaken aesthetic appreciation ; ^ family life calls out the affections ; in short, growing out of the awakening of this instinct and following out its consequences, there are furnished the conditions for suddenly developing the personality rapidly in certain of its powers. Further- more, in those aspects of growth just mentioned, some of the elements of the psychic life are ripening which are carried up into religion. Religion, doubtless, takes up into itself the moral sense, truthfulness in mental re- presentation of the objective order, the sense of appre- ciation and the affections, which are awakened in the family and social relations. There is no vital distinction, presumably, between the physiological foundation of the psychic activity involved in the love and ties which exist in the family and that which enters into the love of God and into worship and adoration. The point of importance for us in this connection is that it is natural that in adolescence there should be a rapid development, which either furnishes some of the elements that directly enter into religion, or brings the individual suddenly into such ripeness of mental capacity that religious impulses may have an adequate organ for their reception and expression. The religious ceremonies which cluster about this period among almost all people, both savage and civilised, seem to show not only its importance, but something of the way in which it has significance. A ^ For a presentation of this aspect see Colin Scott, ' Sex and Art,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VII., p. 153, an article keen in its psychological analysis, but, in my opinion, faulty in its interpretations. A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 149 masterly statement of these customs is that by Dr Daniels/ in which he shows the universality of such observances as circumcision, knocking out the teeth, hair offerings, tattooing, fasting, seclusion, change of name, beating and torture, change of apparel, confirma- tion and the like, which come usually at puberty, and have frequently a religious significance. ' The recogni- tion in so many different ways, and by almost every race, of the transition from youth to manhood, from the narrow domestic circle to membership in the community, has deep psychological as well as physical significance. The boy, as a member of the family, supported by others and feeling almost no responsibility, when becoming a man enters upon a new kind of life. ... In the minds of these peoples there was a fixed gulf be- tween the life of manhood and that of childhood, and he who would become a man must put away " childish things." ... It was indeed a dying to the former life. Everything that might serve as a reminder of the old life must be scrupulously avoided.'^ In these cere- monies one sees in process of development something of the later, more spiritual aspects of religion. The Physiological View. Among the changes of adolescence those in the anatomy of the nervous system furnish an important background for understanding the spiritual phenomena. We shall confine ourselves to some aspects of cerebral growth, since the cerebrum is the seat of the higher mental states. It is a well-established fact, as is shown from the study of the brains of children, idiots, adults-\ and animals, that the character of the psychic life is 1 conditioned by the quality of nervous tissue. The parts " in the finer anatomy which are especially essential to mental activity are the cells for generating and storing ^ Arthur Daniels, ' The New Life ; a Study of Regeneration,' American Journal of Psychology, VI., No. i. "^ Daniels, p. 19. ISO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION nervous energy, and a rich network of nerve fibres, with fatty wrappings (medullations) for conducting the energy from one part of the brain to the other. The researches of Vulpius, Kaes and Flechsig ^ have shown that at birth there are no medullated fibres in the grey matter of the cerebrum, although the lower nerve centres which condition the reflexes are richly fibrillated ; that is, the life of a new-born child is controlled entirely by the reflexes in the lower nerve centres, and not at all by the representative faculty. The medullated fibres increase rapidly during childhood, and gradually during later years, as late at least as about 40. The fibrillation is not homogeneous in the different parts of the cerebrum. The three layers of tangential fibres near the surface of the brain, which, presumably, partially determine the complexity of mental associations, do not develop simultaneously. Dr Burk sums up the results of Vulpius's work thus : — ' The fibres of the inner layer develop their sheaths (medullations) in all cases earlier, and in the motor, sight and hearing regions almost reach their maximum in number during the second year, while in the speech and other centres there is a gradual increase until the eleventh year, and a later gradual increment until the thirty-third year at least. The outer layer fibres follow in general the course of growth of the inner layer, but contain generally from one-eighth to one-half as many ; the middle layer in no case makes an appreciable increase until puberty, grows more rapidly in the earlier adult years, and never con- tains more than a third as many fibres as the inner layer.' ^ The significant fact is that the inner layer, which develops contemporaneously with the senses, and the outer layer, which is relatively the most important in the lower animals, develop first, while the middle ^ For a summary of these, researches see Donaldson's Growth of the Brain, 1895, chap. xii. * Frederick Burk, ' From fundamental to accessory in the develop- ment of the nervous system,' Pedagogical Seminary,. Oct. 1898, p. 5. The reference to Vulpius is Archiv. f. Psychiat. u. Nerven Krank, Bd. XXIII., 1892. 152 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION out of it, becomes in great degree independent of it, and is the anatomical basis of mind.' ' The highest level centres are nothing else than the centres of universal and complex representation, ... or, using old-fashioned language, they are the whole organism.' Flechsig con- tends that the associational areas in the brain, which Burk believes are the same as Jackson's third level, occupy two-thirds of the cortex, have nothing to do with sensory-motor processes of the body, but have the ' function of knowledge, of interpreting experience, of the aesthetic sentiments, of the scientific decisions, of the moral judgments,' etc.^ In this point of view, conver- sion may be the sudden functioning of Hughlings Jackson's highest level, or Flechsig's associational areas, and the transfer of the personality to this centre. Some such view tends to bring harmony among the facts. The rapid formation of new nerve connections in early adolescence may be the cause of the physiological un- rest and mental distress that intensifies into what we have called the sense of incompleteness which precedes conversion. The mind becomes a ferment of half- formed ideas, as the brain is a mesh of poorly organised parts. The pain and ache of the conviction period is an indication of high potentials of nervous energy which find no outlet of expression ; in other words, it is clogged mental activity. It is the exact opposite of the pleasure of self-expression, such as that of the young animal which gives vent to its energy in gamboling, or that of the artist in painting or the musician in playing. Through heredity, doubtless, the brain is endowed with certain structural elements and latent energies which antedate their functional activity. The ' sense of sin ' is the indication that they are trying to function — that the brute is pressing on to become a man. In its biological significance the sense of imperfection is the price we ' Frederick Burk, ' From fundamental to accessory in the develop- ment of the nervous system,' Pedagogical Seminary, Oct. 1898, p. 1 1, sum- marising from Die Localization der geistigen Vorgange inbesondere der Sinnesetnpfindungen, 1896. A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 153 have to pay for the massive, and at first unwieldy, en- largement at the top end of the spinal cord, which, when mastered and brought into requisition, becomes such a tremendous tool and organ of spiritual insight. The person is restless to be born into a larger world. Finally, through wholesome suggestions, normal de- velopment, helped on perhaps by some emotional stress or shock, harmony is struck, life becomes a unity, and the person is born into a larger world of spirit. The Psychological View. The physiological background of consciousness, while it furnishes a basis for understanding conversion, is in- adequate of itself to explain it. It is necessary to approach it from the standpoint of the growth and interplay of ideas. In this point of view conversion is the sudden readjustment to a larger spiritual environ- ment when once the norm has been lost, or when it is dimly felt, but not yet attained. We have, then, to consider how life gets awry with its surroundings, how a breach arises between its spiritual impulses and its present attainment, and then how the breach is finally healed. In understanding the discord between the subjective life and the larger possible life, there are at least three things to be considered — the growth of ideals, native inertia, and the complexity of environ- mental forces which tend to call the person into activity. In the first place, the attainment of that condition which makes conversion necessary has its seat primarily in the anticipatory power of the mind. The mind can forecast experience ; on the basis of what is, it can look ahead and divine what might be. The possible is lifted up above the present. An ideal is formed in advance of the real. The experience out of which the ideal arises is usually complex and manifold, so that it is not seen clearly. On the contrary, one has an inkling of it — a scent of something better, a feeling after it. From the standpoint of a possible ideal self one can 154 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION look back on the present self and judge it. The "contrast between them is emphasised, and a chasm forms between the self which now is and that which •^sUiight be. This condition is emphasised, secondly, by native inertia. A noted divine has said that ' Sin is laziness.' The push toward enlightenment and righteousness is an uphill process. The moment one relaxes he is in danger of being dragged down by ingrained, instinctive, racial impulses. The discord is heightened, thirdly, by the variety and complexity of impulses to action, and by the number of forces in one's surroundings which tend to call one out in this way and that. In reply to the questions, 'What acts or faults have you committed which you knew at the time were wrong? Why did you do them ? ' the answers are instructive. They show the possibility of slipping into inharmonious relation- ships with one's environment. F. ' My mother had positively forbidden me to visit one of my friends, and many times I wilfully disobeyed her, because the attrac- tion of my friend's society was stronger than my sense of right' F. ' I used to be fond of jumping-rope, but mother forbade me to do it. At school I disobeyed, because I thought mother need never know of it; all the other girls jump ropes without falling dead, and I wouldn't meet with any accident either.' F. ' I refused to sing at a school entertainment because mamma would not let me wear a certain dress. I felt satisfied to think I got out of singing it, but felt an inward voice chiding me. On the whole I thought I was a very bad girl, and did not want to think of it.' Such instances are appar- ently very numerous. They all illustrate how there are complexities in the subjective life, and also in one's surroundings, which tend to fracture the unity and symmetry of consciousness. The wrong acts performed knowingly were of two classes. First, there were those in which associations and social complications led the person against his or her private judgment or teaching A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 155 into a wrong course ; for example, in the instance above in which the child was playing between the mother's will, on the one hand, and the sports in vogue in the school and the fascination of doing as the rest did, on the other. A selection of alternatives, either of which may bring discomfort, is necessary. There is a hitch, consequently, in what Mr Spencer terms ' the progres- sive adjustment of inner and outer relations.' In the second place, there is the complexity of tastes, desires and impulses, any one of which may get the upper hand and assert itself Often an immediate desire in which wilfulness or an abnormal taste plays a part is stronger than a remote, truer one. In one quota- tion above, for instance, the attraction of a friend's society was more immediate and pressing than the duty of obedience. The ability to forecast experience, together with this complexity of impulses, complicates the situation still more. The will is paralysed, in the presence of many possibilities of action. The something-to-be-said-on- both-sides, of Will Wimble, whose dilemma is not serious enough to check the flow of his vitality, may grow into the perplexity of a Hamlet when the con- flicting possibilities of action are vital and momentous. This is one aspect of the mal-adjustment of life that may come with growth. Each impulse to action is inhibited by others which have equal right to express themselves. Enough has been said to show clearly the possible causes leading up to conversion. There are forces in human- life and its surroundings which tend to break the unity and harmony of consciousness ; and its unity once destroyed, the contrast between what is, and what might be, gives birth to ideals and sets two selves in sharp opposition to each other. This fracture in con- sciousness which gives rise to the ideal set off against the present self is frequently beneath the threshold of consciousness, and shows itself as an organic discontent, a struggling in the dark, a reaching out after an inde- 156 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION finable ideal. There are many instances, however, in which the person is conscious of the vacillation between two lives. As in the classic instance of Paul, there are two members warring against each other. F., 14. 'I had an anxiety to come out on the Lord's side, with conflicting doubts and distrust as to being able to reach and maintain the standard of excellence.' F. ' I would tell myself, "You ought to join the church"; then I would say, " No, you can't be good enough." ' M., 23. ' During my sickness (two years previous to conversion) I determined to be a better boy. I did live a better life, but often yielded to wrong. Two years later I was listening very attentively to the song, " Come home, come home, your Father calls, Come home." I seemed to see, as by the light of a flash of lightning in darkest midnight, the holiness of God, of Heaven, of the Father's house, etc., and the uncleanness of my poor heart, its diseases, its pollution and corruption.' The following instance is a type of immature natures, in which the duality and conflict are at first felt in an organic way, and objectified as the atiger of God and the fear of punishment, but with the growth of self-consciousness the two selves stand off" against each other: F., 12. 'I do not remember the time when I did not feel that I ought to be a Christian, but was not willing to yield. I felt that God was angry with me on account of my sin, and would punish me if I did not repent. My con- version was simply giving up my own will and being willing to be guided by God's will. At first there was a feeling of peace, then began the strife between good and evil. The roots of bitterness were still there. It seemed as if the evil had only been stirred up and turned loose, as it were. I was practically two people. I wanted to be good, but could not. I would continu- ally do things that I did not want to do, but could not help doing them.' This is an illustration of the con- dition which normally precedes conversion, and which the change of heart must heal. Conversion is suddenly forsaking the lower for the higher self. In terms of the A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 157 neural basis of consciousness, it is inhibition of lower channels of nervous discharge through the establish- ment of higher connections and identification of the ego with the new activities. In- theological terminology it is Christ coming into the heart and the old life being blotted out — the human life swallowed up in the life of God. The method nature employs in healing the breach between the two selves is usually not to lessen the conflict but rather to heighten it. It is the nature of r the mind to emphasise contrasts. It dwells on thej far-awayness of the ideal life and the extreme un- worthiness of the old life. The effect is cumulative even when the person is left alone, as in the instance quoted previously, in which the person felt she would die that very summer unless the sought-for relief came, or' in another one, in which the man's sense of sin rapidly grew into a dreadful fear that he had grieved the Holy Spirit. This seems to be nature's way of making the changed attitude significant when it comes. Religious workers take advantage of this tendency in the methods they employ. The method of one of the most successful revivalists in convicting of sin is shown by this extract from an address. ' At the close of a recent meeting a lady came to me and said, " Mr Moody, I have been a professing Christian for five years, and I am more irrit- able, I have less patience and less control over my temper than I had five years ago. Don't you think that is wrong?" "Wrong?" I said; "that is a sin." She thought it was a kind of weakness. I went to work to convince her that it was a downright sin for her to be short-tempered and all that. . . . The work of the Holy Ghost is to convict of sin. O that the power of conviction might come right here ! . . . There is no power on earth like a quickened church, and it won't be quickened until we begin to think of sin.' Evil is un- covered and shown in its true character, together with the fatal consequences which impend if the present course is continued. The person is exposed as the iS8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION responsible agent in its results. The hope of heaven and eternal happiness, as contrasted with endless pun- ishment, is appealed to. Occasionally the beauty of a virtuous life is held up in contrast with the agencies of sin. The urgency of the present moment is em- phasised as a possible last opportunity. Every means is used to make the fracture in consciousness between the two selves complete, and to make the transfer of the personality to the new centre decisive and final. It is through these means and through the normal mental activities by which the sense of guilt is deepened that the two aspects of conviction, the sense of incom- pleteness and the sense of sin — the one the precursor of spontaneous awakening into new life, and the other leading toward an escape from sinful habits — tend to become the same. There are certain essential differences be- tween the two types which we should not fail to dis- tinguish. The kind of awakening following the sense of incompleteness is, as we have noticed heretofore, a blossoming out into new life by the natural processes of growth. The nerve elements have matured, which are about to function on a higher level. The situation preceding conversion is presumably somewhat analogous to the tension in a basin of standing water, which has more than reached the freezing point, and only needs a shock to cause the atoms to fall into new relations and suddenly to congeal; or it is like elements held in solu- tion which only need the slightest addition of some substance to cause a precipitation. The other type is primarily an eruptive breaking-up of evil habits and abnormal tastes and cravings, by turning the life forces along new channels. In their purest forms the one is the normal adolescent development in a healthy, virtuous, but immature person, about whose consciousness a larger life is hovering and pressing for recognition, and finally breaks in ; the other is the reformation of a drunkard, for instance, who pushes on in his own course, until dissipation of power and physical and mental exhaus- A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 159 tion make it necessary to surrender the old self for a truer one. He has swerved from the straight and narrow path, representing the norm of human experience. If the line representing the norm were one side of a triangle, the way actually pursued would be represented by the other two sides. But the two types have so much in common that in many respects they can be discussed together. Both- involve the breaking-up of old habits (an imperfect, undeveloped life has its set modes of activity which must give way to those which the new insight entails—^ in this sense, ' all have sinned.') Both involve a revela- tion of new truth; both are attended by a conflictl between an accepted course of action, and a truer one! which is dawning. "^ Something like what seems to take place in both cases is shown in Figure 11. In No. (i) of the figure. d \ \ ^ - . ■^ ' I > (1) Conviction. (Z) Crisis. (3) New life. the lines going in the direction («) represent the way old habits, associations, tastes and ideas tend to carry the current of life. Lines going in the direction (d) are the beginnings of a possible better life, purer associa- tions, co-operation with others, love of truth, a glimpse into a larger spiritual world beyond the self Thus the even flow and harmony of life is destroyed. The person is pulled in two directions. This conflict between the old habitual self and a possible better one results in those conviction phenomena described as the sense of i6o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION sin, and the feeling of incompleteness. As the call toward the new life becomes more urgent, the situation is shown in No. (2) of the figure, {c) is the habitual self striving with all its might to preserve its self-con- sistency, {d) is the divine urging which has become imperative and irresistible. Here is the critical point, the tragic moment. The person resorts to evasion of good influences, pointing out the perfection of the present self, the imperfections of others, and anything to preserve the old self intact. It is more often a distress, a deep indefinable feeling of reluctance, which is perhaps a complex of all the surface considerations that a thorough break in habits and associations would involve. It continues until complete exhaustion takes away the power of striving — the person becomes nothing ; his will is broken ; he surrenders himself to the higher forces that are trying to claim him ; he accepts the higher life as his own. The next stage is shown in No. (3). Only a vestige of the old life {e) is left. The new life (/) is now the real self The conflict has ceased and there is relief The depression is gone, and gives place to joy. The pain from friction between con- tending forces becomes now the pleasure of free activity. Harmony is restored, and there is peace. The facts in the preceding study nearly all seem to fit into such a scheme. Let us test it by seeing what harmony it brings among the diverse experiences which were thought to be the essential things, in the point of transi- tion in conversion — self-surrender, determination, for- giveness. Divine aid, public confession, spontaneous awakening, and sense of oneness with God. ' Self- surrender' and ' new determination ' seem at first entirely contradictory experiences, which follow somewhat simi- lar conviction states and precede similar post-conversion phenomena. They are really the same thing. Self-sur- render sees the change in terms of the old self; deter- mination sees it in terms of the new. Each overlooks, for the time, one fact — self-surrender does not consider that the best of the old life enters the new, and that really A GENERAL VIEW- OF CONVERSION i6i nothing is given up; and, on the other hand, determina- tion does not stop to estimate its losses. The frequent phrase, ' determined to yield,' stands half-way between, and expresses, perhaps, more nearly the truth of the process. When the change is attributed to 'divine aid,' the new forces which come to lead one into a larger life are entirely objectified and become the influence of some outside personality or spirit. ' Forgiveness ' involves the same tendency to objectify the forces at work, and also the sense that the old life is no more — has been forgiven. The relation between those cases in which personal effort and choice are exercised, and those in which the change is brought about by an external agent, thus becomes clear. When conscious self-direc- tion is exercised, it indicates that the ' I ' has kept pace with the growth processes, and is a participant in them ; while in the case of forgiveness of sin and divine inter- vention, growth has proceeded unconsciously, the per- sonality has unwittingly advanced, and instead of being the participant, it is the ' me,' the passive agent in the _ change, and a receiver of the new life. The feeling of 'oneness' (with God or Christ) is the experience in which the most prominent thing which presents itself at the time is the sense of freedom and harmony that follows the change, and the consciousness that the life is now the completer embodiment of the larger spiritual world. ' Public confession ' is much the same as ' oneness with God.' To the nature which has not yet grown into the power of deep intuitions, the sanction of friends, compliance with church rites, and the like, stand more distinctly for oneness with God. The same person more highly developed might have described the central thing in a similar experience as harmony with the will of God. The experiences immediately following conversion are such as would naturally come after the steps described. Psychologically, they are in line with the facts of fatigue and rest, of repression followed by release, and of the pleasure in the exercise of a newly- T, i62 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION acquired power. The essential thing in it is the iden- tification of the self with the new world of persons and spiritual relations into which it is born. At its best it is the individual will coming into harmony with what it feels to be the Divine Will. CHAPTER XIII THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION No two persons will agree upon the limit at which normal religious experiences pass over into pathological. Where the line of demarcation will fall depends largely on one's general attitude toward religion, and on one's temperamental attitude toward human experiences, which allows them a wide or narrow range. There are the alienists, too, who are constantly on the lookout for some abnormal tendency, and, consequently, are sure to find it. According to their standard the whole con- version phenomenon is to ,be regarded as abnormal. Dr Boris Sidis, for example, in his Psychology of Sug- gestion, remarks, in regard to the article of which this study is a revision, ' What Mr Starbuck does not realise is the fact that it is not healthy, normal life that one studies in sudden religious conversions, but the phenomena of revival insanity.'^ In a kindly review of a subsequent article on re- ligious growth, ^&' Philadelphia Medical Journal says: ' Dr Starbuck himself does not apparently realise the full force of his work in the domain of psychiatry, but it is especially to this aspect of it that we have been attracted.' In the point of view of this journal, what we have termed the ' sense of sin ' would be more fairly regarded as a pathological phenomenon. ' It should never be forgotten, however, that this form of psychalgia, or mental pain (the sense of sin), from whatever cause', is the fundamental lesion in perhaps the largest group ^Op. cit., p. 354. 1 64 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of cases of mental alienation, i.e., melancholia.' The alienist thinks in terms of psychiatry. He casts his pathological net, and anything sufficiently exaggerated above commonplaceness so that it cannot slip through the meshes he claims as his. Religionists, on the other hand, are liable to have an apperceptive faculty which colours whatever happens in connection with the nominally religious as a divine manifestation. No ex- cesses of excitement, no hypnosis, no diseased imagin- ings, provided they have the cloak of religion, are too extreme to be regarded by certain persons as normal and healthy. It is not my purpose, in the present volume, to try to discriminate between normal and abnormal religious experiences. In the preceding chapters I have taken the records regarded by the subjects as normal, and studied them, first among themselves to get a larger conception of their nature, and then to see how they fit in with other facts in human life, and to what extent they are interpretable in terms of accepted physiological and psychological laws. In this chapter, likewise, I shall take certain experiences which are looked upon by the respondents as abnormal, and see how they fit in with the supposedly normal phenomena, and what possibilities they expose for thwarting the ends of religious growth. The testimony of the respondents, then, is our standard of judging the two classes of normal and abnormal. This is by no means a satis- factory test, but the only one af present available. There is no more important question, from both a scientific and a practical standpoint, than that of de- termining in what persons and under what circumstances a sudden religious awakening is desirable. The ultimate test, doubtless, will be, does it contribute, in the long run, in the individual and in groups of individuals, to permanent growth? The settlement of such a question far exceeds the maturity of the psychology of religion. The hope at present is to make clear certain plain laws of growth, and to disclose the pitfalls, so that it may be THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 165 possible to apply oneself more tactfully to the cultiva- tion of the spiritual life. In the attempt to establish a standard of judgment for the abnormal elements in religion, there are two extremes which should be avoided; on the one hand, that of the thorough-going alienist, who brands everything that rises above the dead level of experience as pathological, and who, for instance, convicts Wagner of megalomania and Ibsen of egomania, and looks upon any experience which takes account in a vital way of the blackness of sin or the joy which accompanies religious insight, simply as mental aberration ; and, on the other hand, that of the radical religionist, who looks upon the most violent excess as a manifestation of the Spirit, provided only it be carried out in the name of religion. One of the most commonly accepted principles of mental activity is that any normal process, if freed from its inhibitions and carried to an extreme, becomes pathological. It is of extreme importance in consider- ing anything so complex and delicate as the religious instinct — especially when it is liable to be wrought upon vigorously, as is done in the crisis called conversion — to stop and observe some of the danger points, at which people may easily be led beyond the limits of the normal, and thereby suffer irretrievable loss. The most glaring danger is found in the emotionalism and excitement of religious revivals. The effect is to induce a state of mere feeling which, when it has passed, leaves no spiritual residuum ; to drive persons to irrational conduct, so that when the reaction sets in, they reject not only their first profession, but the whole of religion. This cannot be better illustrated than by quoting from two or three typical records. The follow- ing was written by a person who has since worked his way to a positive religious experience, and is an in- fluential pastor in' a large city : ' I automatically went to church and Sunday school, with the general attitude', toward religion of indifference. The forces which led to my conversion (at 15) seem to me now hypnotic in i66 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION character. My will seemed wholly, at the mercy of others, particularly of the revivalist M . There was absolutely no intellectual element ; I did not think of dogma or doctrine ; it was pure feeling. There followed a period of ecstasy. I was bent on doing good, and was eloquent in appealing to others. The state of moral exaltation did not continue ; it was followed by a com- plete relapse from orthodox religion. I look back upon my experience now with shame and repugnance. It was an unnatural state, and could not be maintained.' Here is another instance, to represent many of its kind, of a woman, now a teacher in one of the prominent colleges, who succumbed to the irresistible force of the ensemble, and was forced to simulate religion without possessing it : ' I had been carefully trained, and had received more than an ordinary amount of religious and biblical instruction. The winter that I wks ii, a series of revival meetings was being held, to which I was taken. I attended some half-dozen without re- ceiving any impression. At the very last meeting the usual appeal was made for those to rise who wished to be on the Lord's side. There was considerable excitement. In the midst of it I rose and remained standing. I think I had no conscious motive in taking this step. I was simply carried away by the excitement, and did not know what I did. If any influence came in, it was love for my mother, who sat beside me, bowed in prayer. I felt that she wished me to rise, and yet the knowledge was something I felt after rather than before I rose. I was much excited, and became hysterical under the emotions aroused and under the prevailing excitement. ... I was taken apart with others and talked with, and as a result joined the P church the next Sunday. . . . The experiences had been un- natural, and therefore could not last. I lived for a short time, perhaps six months, under an unnatural excitement, and then relapsed into a state of utter indifference. I feel now that the result of the "con- version " was bad, for I felt that I had done all that was THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 167 to be done, and therefore made no effort to grow. And I may say I lived a lie, for I knew I ought not to belong to the church ; yet, because it was easy to say nothing, I let everyone believe I was a truly converted Christian. I remained in this state until my Sophomore year in college, when I accepted with some degree of intellectual under- standing the chief doctrines of the Christian church, and can now call myself " converted," though I was not before.' In producing such results, the influence of the mob- mind is an important factor. The force of the popular mind in religious movements is not to be distinguished from its exercise in political campaigns, in battle, in mobs and strikes, and the like. Everyone who is familiar with the methods of revivalists knows how perfectly they coincide with those of the ' leaders of crowds ' described by M. Le Bon. ' When it is pro- posed to imbue the mind of a crowd with ideas and belief — with modern social theories, for instance — the leaders have recourse- to different expedients. The principal of them are three in number, and clearly defined — affirmation, repetition and contagion. . . . Affirmation pure and simple, kept free of all reasoning and all proof, is one of the surest means of making an idea enter the mind of crowds. . . . Affirmation,' how- ever, has no real influence unless it be repeated, and so far as possible in the same terms. The influence of repetition is due to the fact that the repeated statement is embedded in the long run in the profound regions of our unconscious selves, in which the motives of our actions are forged. . . . When an affirmation has been sufficiently repeated, and there is unanimity in its repeti- tion, what is called a current of opinion is formed, and the powerful mechanism of contagion intervenes.' ^ The influence of religious leaders and of mob-mind in arous- ing great movements is not so strong at the present time as formerly. Earlier in the present century it was not uncommon for the contagion to be so striking as to induce marked physiological symptoms in entire 1 Gustav Le Bon, The Crowd, 1896, p. 126 et seq. 1 68 TliE PSYCHOLOGY OF RlELIGlON audiences. They were often seized en masse with the ' jerks,' an epileptic condition of the muscular system/ or by trances, in which the muscles were completely relaxed or permanently rigid. The trance phenomena are not infrequent in certain localities at the present time. From the psycho-physiological standpoint, the results of mob action seem to be to produce a relaxed state in the cerebral centres, which frees the lower centres from the inhibitory control- of the higher, and thus renders the mind more suggestible. It is to be noted, accordingly, that the will is paralysed, as in the two instances just quoted. In extreme cases there is ' no thought of dogma or doctrine,' as would be true in the relaxed condition of the cortical centres, which are the seat of- the intellectual functions. (It will be re- called that in normal conversions the conscious element was relatively small.) Shouting and springing over benches, in which negroes often indulge, the sense of ' walking on air,' rising without knowing it, and the like, seem to indicate the unchecked activity of the lower centres. The sensuality which sometimes breaks out in the midst of great religious excitement seems to show the same thing — relaxation of the control of the higher centres over the lower. To be sure, the conscious element is always to some degree present. ' There is no suggestion without consciousness,' says Moll.^ But the quality of consciousness is doubtless of the kind Dr Scott attributes to the art psychosis. It is ' essentially a state of ecstasy, with a tendency to produce |a slight obsessional climax ' ^ in a certain direction. This climax is, as already observed, in the direction deter- mined by the drift of the unconscious factors of the psychic life, and by the force of suggestion at the time. Trance states would seem to be the result of an over emphasis and irradiation of the relaxation and anesthesia ^ ■• See, for instance, The Life and Works of Peter Cartwright, ^ Albert Moll, Hypnotism (Contemporary Science Series), 4tli edition, 1897, p. 289. V ^ Colin Scott, ' Sex and Art,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VII., p. 221. THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 169 which begin in the higher centres, and work until con- sciousness is obliterated, and only the muscular centres are active, thus producing a cataleptic condition of the body. Whatever be the explanation of the phenonriena, they are sufficiently striking to em.phasise both the strength and danger of religious excitement. The dangers of mob-mind are even greater in this sphere than in almost any other. The strength of concerted action and con- tagion in politics or war is that something is to be done — a majority vote is to be cast, or a city to be taken. But in the spiritual life, not only is the right emotional attitude necessary, which the voter or warrior must possess, but there must be some rational sanction of conduct. The warrior has the fallen city walls after- ward as a token that his action was worth while, although in the heat of battle he may have been simply driven on by the excitement of the occasion. The sup- posed convert, who has been overwrought, if he has not maturity enough to judge results by spiritual standards, or, which is saying the same thing, if he was not ripe for the proposed change of heart, comes to himself on a barren plain, and wonders what it was all about. The danger is not simply that nothing of permanent good ■ comes to the person whose feelings are too highly wrought upon, but that positive injury results from such measures. Some persons rebel against the whole institution which employs them. One young man, whose ' feelings had been worked up by a story-telling revivalist,' calls it ' a gold brick deal,' and remarks, ' It almost made me an infidel. I have hardly been in a church since.' The following notes were written by an observer of an excited revival, in which the meetings were held until early morning. Some persons, in the midst of the excitement, lay prostrate on the floor, one crawled on hands and knees about the aisles, and some went into trance. ' I know that one. young man, who was a teacher in our school, went to the Board soon afterward ' (the writer is a member of the School Board) ' and told them that he was very sorry for and ashamed 170 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of the part he had taken, and that he was not fully him- self at the time. He was a good man before, and is still an active, discreet Christian worker. The seven- teen-year-old girl I. spoke of, who lay in what they called a trance for nineteen hours, has never been able to take more than one study in school since. She is very nervous, and doesn't seem to have grown religiously, as far as an outsider can see. Three of those who took a very prominent part in the meeting seem to have grown cold, and are seldom at a place of worship. The rest of those who were active seem about as they did before, except A L . She does seem to be growing religiously '; but I fancy those meetings were not the cause of her growth, nor were they the beginning of it.' The president of a college writes : ' Once at W occurred one of those overheated revivals. Under the pressure, scores made professions, loud and high ; to-day the effects have largely disappeared. I once witnessed a religious awakening of a milder type, wherein a whole neighbourhood was transformed. Scarcely one who professed ever renounced his profession, or ceased to lead a godly life.' A pastor furnishes these statistics of the results, in a single comrfiunity, of revivals which were conducted by an imported evangelist : — Number Received. ' Dropped ' before 6 weeks. Received into full memb'ship. 0/ those received in full. Relapsed since. Now in good standing. I. Converts in Re- vival Meetings conducted by a Professional Evangelist II. Converts in Regular Church Work (at Home, Sunday School, Revival by Pastor, etc.) 92 68 62 16 30 52 15 10 12 41 THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 171 It will have been already observed that one of the forces working in revivals is that of suggestion and hypnotism. The tactics used by the revivalists are in many respects similar to those of the hypnotist. Not to speak of the series of meetings, with their constant reiteration of the fact of sin and the need of salvation, or of the stimulus of the crowd and the force of example which tend to subdue the will of the most recalcitrant, a glance at the methods employed by certain evangelists of influencing the ' seeker ' while at the altar are signifi- cant. The preacher kneels with the person under conviction, often with laying on of hands, and repeats over and over in a slow, monotonous tone, full of feeling, such phrases as ' Christ is knocking at the door of your heart,' ' If only you have faith in His power to save,' ' Christ is waiting to forgive,' ' He died on the Cross to save me, even me,' ' Now you believe,' etc. It is preferable that the congregation sing while the process is going on. The absolute necessity of faith is emphasised, just as in hypnotism it is understood that no effect can be produced without the willingness of the subject. If one person's suggestions fail, the 'workers' take turns until conviction is finally implanted in the seeker's mind, and he acts upon it, accepts £he power of Christ to save, and becomes, in attitude at least, a new creature. The unconscious suggestions under such circumstances perhaps far outweigh the verbal ones. It will be readily seen that these methods are similar to those by which a subject is brought under the control of a hypnotist, and they have been the means of an untold amount of criminality when they have become the tool of ignorant or selfish persons. Professor Coe, in the research already referred to, has studied in detail the connection between the abrupt- ness of religious experience and suggestibility. It will be remembered that he divided the subjects into three groups : I., persons who expected a transformation and experienced it; II., those who expected it but were 172 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION disappointed ; and III., those who belonged to both the above classes. Of the 14 cases in Group L, 13 are of the passive type. Of the 12 persons in Group IL, 9 clearly belong to the spontaneous type, i is entirely passive, and 2 are open to some doubt. From these results it appears highly probable that much of the phenomenal display of feeling in revivals is the sequence of hypnotic suggestion. Now, it cannot be too clearly pointed out that religious hypnosis is not an evil in itself; on the contrary, it is a valuable tool that nature has put in the hands of all persons who have to deal with people for the accomplishment of worthy ends. It is only in its abuse that it becomes an evil. We are coming to see that suggestion (which is not distinguishable from hypnot- ism) is a most efficient means in any sort of education. The wise teacher is the one who induces a right emotional attitude, and so directs the will in the direction of ideal conduct. It is coming to be com- monly accepted that the therapeutics of suggestion, when administered under the direction of a physician, is a legitimate way of eradicating certain faults in children.^ It is coming into more general use, also, in the alleviation of diseases. Moll, in defending its use among physicians, goes so far as to say, ' I believe, with Krafft-Ebing, Fr. Miiller and others, that no important effect can be obtained in most functional neuroses with- out suggestion. I think that hardly any of the newest discoveries are so important to the art of healing, apart from surgery, as the study of suggestion. . . . The con: elusion that neither hypnotism nor suggestion will again disappear from the foreground in medicine is justified. This hope is grounded on the fact that there are in Germany a number of practical doctors, not carried away by enthusiasm, who study suggestion, and do not look for hasty successes and " miraculous " cures.' ^ The ^ See, for example, A. Moll, Hyp7iotisni, p. 363 et seq. 2 Op. cit., p. 354. THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 173 religious worker, who is a real psychologist, with high and pure motives, who possesses the tact and skill to free a soul through wise suggestion from the trammels that hold it within too narrow limits, and can set all its powers functioning in the direction of its normal growth, in so doing has not induced an artificial state in the mind of the subject. ' Hypnotic suggestion, and suggestion out of hypnosis, have the same aim : to determine the subject's will in a certain direction. Suggestion sets the conscious will in the right direction as education does.'^ The failure is only when the suggestion is out of the range of the capacity and natural drift of the subject's consciousness. An unwise and unfortunate use of revivals is that they take certain social standards and attempt to force them indiscriminately on ajl persons alike. The notion is formed, and, doubtless, rightly, that the only means of escape for one whose evil habits are deeply ingrained is through repentance, a definite regeneration and con- fession. There seems to be practical ignorance of the other type of conversion, i.e.. sudden awakening follow- ing the sense of imperfection, and still greater disregard of the fact that it is not natural for certain tempera- ments to develop spasmodically, or even to exhibit marked stadia in their growth. Consequently, the normal means of regeneration for the wayward and for hardened sinners becomes a dogma, and is held up as the only means of escape for children, for natures spiritually immature, for the virtuous, and for those temperamentally unfit. A certain competition for supremacy among churches, and for success among individual workers, exaggerates the evil. Each new convert is sometimes vulgarly called by revivalists another star in the crowns which they will wear in the future life. If there were only power of discrimination, they would see that their success in dragging many so-called converts into the whirl of excitement, hypnot- ising them, and leaving them empty afterward, is more ' Moll, op. cit., p. 364. 174 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION fitly likened to the triumph of a man of prowess who wears scalps of victims as trophies. It is a significant fact that of the whole number of respondents who expressed an opinion, only two or three of those who had been through revival experiences spoke in unqualified terms of approval of the methods usually employed. There were a few of the number who condemned them severely. There was a general depreciation of the emotional pressure exerted; and this, coming from the converts themselves, should be of value. A study of early conversions bears a similar testi- mony. If we take arbitrarily the ages of 12 for females and 14 for males, and study the forces operating in all the conversions before those ages, we find that there are almost none on whom marked emotional pressure was not exerted, or who were not influenced by strong suggestion and imitation. These are typical : F., 1 1. ' I had deeply religious parents ; I was always in some sense a Christian. A sermon by my father in childhood thoroughly frightened me, and its effects never left me. I was tormented by fears of being lost' F., 11. ' A deep impression was made on me by a story of a woman who died, saying, "A million dollars for a moment of time ! " I was overcome by fear of sudden death.' F., 11. 'My early life was as careless and happy as a bird's. The first time that religion seemed meant for me was at a revival, when Mr M — ^ — preached on the crucifixion. He drew a vivid picture of it, and told the congregation they had nailed Him to the cross. My childish heart was broken ; I felt I could do nothing to atone for making Christ suffer.' M., 11. ■' It was mostly due to the influence of my seat-mate; when he went to the altar, I thought, " Why, if he can be a Christian, I can, too." ' It should be remembered that these are among the number in which the experi- ence was regarded by the respondent as a real con- version. The event may be genuine, regardless of the emotionalism or imitation involved. In fact, it may be THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 175 largely due to it. The harmful results may be occa- sionally the inevitable waste that comes witl> work, the necessary sacrifice which goes along with activity in a social complex. Nevertheless, the picture is complete only if we keep in mind the large number who are wrecked through ignorance and indiscretion. The force of public opinion and the contagion which binds individuals into unity of action is one of the most formidable agencies all the way along, from its force among gregarious animals to that in the most evolved society. The stimulus of the ensemble renders the defenders of the herd among animals fearless of per- sonal danger ; it incites men to deeds of valour- in battle ; it arouses people in political crises from indiffer- ence into vigorous action ; but when this same irresist- ible force is focused on a young, tender soul that is just beginning to feel its way into clear light, that should still remain in childish innocence, it is a per- version of nature which would be criminal were it not covered by ignorance. The dangers of revivals carpnot be more forcibly or more truly expressed than in the words of President David Starr Jordan, taken from a lecture delivered before the Psychic Society of Oakland : — ' The lesson to us is that one should be temperate in all things ; that religion shows itself in lofty ideals steadily followed, in a clean life, and in a pure heart. Sterile emotions are not religion, and hysteria, of the same nature as drunkenness, may be even more danger- ous, because it is insidious, and because it may seem to come under the protection of the honoured church. ' It is no attack on religion to protest against the abuses which may creep into religious practice. Every honest clergyman knows that these excesses exist, and in the degree that he is earnest he deplores them, though he may not see how to avoid them. This is the problem of his life work, to be helpful only, and not to hurt even the least of the little ones. He cannot, as has been said, " go clanging in stoga-boots through the holy 176 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of holies." He cannot delegate his duty to itinerant pretenders^ ignorant of right and careless of results. ' I have here the card of a professional evangelist and comic elocutionist. His week's religious work, in Santa Rosa, is followed by an evening of side-splitting elocution, and the appended press notices testify to his excellence in both roles. On the back of the card " Dignan's Corn Cure" is advertised. This is the work of the cross-roads fakir, not of the man of God. It is a gentle misuse of language to call such a man a quack. He is a criminal. ' It is not an attack on religion to call crime or folly by its name. The menace to the church comes from the use of its honoured name as a cloak for folly and selfishness. Because revivals of religion have been productive of endless good under wise hands, is no reason why revivals of hysteria, of sensationalism and sensualism should not receive the rebuke they merit. . . . ' It is certain that chronic religious excitement is destructive to the higher life. The great efforts put forth to save the sinner should npt be used as a means of dissipation for those who believe themselves to be saints. . . . ' There is no right way for the development of all men. Each one must live his own life, pass through his own .changes. He can be helped by others, but this help must be given to him wisely ; and in this connec- tion the work of the preacher has an importance few of us realise. He is to deal with the most delicate part of the nature of man — the part that is most easily injured by bunglers, which can be most helped by the influence of true piety. To teach young men and women the way of life, we need the noblest, wisest and purest men in the calling of the ministry. In the hands of the minister is the moulding of souls — for the long, sweet, helpful life that now is, and, as we hope, for the life that is to come.' Our discussion must not end with the impression ....bJH THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 17? that revivals and evangelists are entirely responsible for the emotional excesses. We have seen that they only work on those peculiarities of temperament which belong to human nature, and which would probably assert themselves in some form without external interference. The evidence has a.lready been sufficient that tempera- ment is at the bottom of the deep depression and glowing experiences which attend conversion. Some of the most marked pathological tendencies are shown in persons who are let alone. Indeed, the fact of being left without any external stimulus seems often to be the very condition which aggravates the feelings until they become abnormal. This is beautifully illustrated in the following instance of a woman who passed through an intense storm and stress experience. Her conviction phenomena cannot be understood without taking into account her disposition and early surroundings. She relates that her mother was disappointed during preg nancy and at her birth in having a child, and showed her no tenderness. Through the unkindness of her parents, she learned to keep her feelings to herself She describes herself as having been a naughty child, nervous, irritable, jealous, protesting, and a spit-fire, but with it all she had a keen sense of justice and of truthfulness. By 10 she had a morbid conscience, which soon took a religious turn. ' Books and teaching,' she says, ' led me to expect conversion. Teachings bewildered my mind ; I worried over doctrines, and had misgivings about being one of the non-elect. At meeting I rose for prayers. I did not know how to be converted ; I asked mother, and she did not understand me. I went away to school. Another girl and I were still troubled about our salvation. I found my first real comfort in finding in a book that God, and not self, was the proper object of contemplation. This was my first real insight and the first rush of feeling toward God. I joined the church, and was very active in religious work and in my anxiety for others, and lived in an odour of sanctity. I became m uch in 1nve with the ideal of perfect 178 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION surrender and perfection, and read perfectionist books. I would lie in bed and think just of God, God, God, with much sense of being shut in by divinity.' The record so far, and throughout, bears evidence that the person belongs to the type of character designated by Professor Coe as the spontaneous or original. In fact, she says, ' In spite of great effort, I was little affected by ceremonial. Baptism, Communion, and the like left me cold. My good moments were formless.' She was pushed by older people into questionable extremes of piety, which were spasmodic. But doubts soon set in, and she became terrified at the idea of giving up her faith ; and through fear of losing it, she cried, prayed, lost sleep and appetite, and suffered from blues and depression. ' Calamity suddenly fell. It shook my faith in God anj^Kiian. Searching misery came in successive waves. Benevolent purpose in the world seemed gone. For years I didn't, know a moment free from mental misery. I was irv extreme depth of disbelief Night after night I wSnt out into the dark, crying out to the life that dwelt in the universe to help me. I felt abso- lutely aloof from everything, a broken thing. I said to myself, as to something above me, I will never believe one inch beyond what my coldest thinking tells me is most probable. On thinking how the world- consciousness might be even blinder and less organised than our own, I gave up the search after God. I no longer cared even to die.' This case bears clear evidence of organic and temperamental conditions under- lying its varied experiences. The point to be noticed in this connection is how the experiences become automatically cumulative, so that no matter in what direction the development starts, it carries itself on to the limit of expression. Beginning with a nervous, irritable nature, a tendency- to seclusion of feeling, and a morbid conscience, we have, in one direction, a searching for a way of escape — each idea starts a fresh wave of experience, and each experience, in turn, leads on to a fresh striving ; or, when the tide sets in the THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 179 opposite direction, a corresponding series of steps leads from bad to worse — doubt deepens the despair, and despair, in turn, increases the doubt. , She progressively walks, talks, and cries herself down to the point of death. It is important to note that doubt preceded the conscious- ness of it, and she was alarmed at its coming. The cumulative effect of the experiences is perhaps due toC the interplay between the organic states and ideas. A physiological condition awakens the consciousness of its presence, and the idea induces a deepening of the somatic resonance. The respondent herself describes the misery as ' coming in successive waves.' Sensation and idea constantly interact, and each augments the other, until some external event breaks the chain, or until the limit of endurance is reached. One sees the same tendency, in a small way in the frightened horse, which becomes more frightened as it runs ; or in the hurt child, who cries because he is hurt, and then cries worse because he has cried. We have here, then, another great highway along which religious experiences sweep themselves beyond the limits of the normal and become pathological ; a certain initiative of religious ecstasy, or of guilt, combined with an element of originality in temperament, tends to become automatically cumulative, until the emotional state chases everything but itself out of the field of consciousness. PART II LINES OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH NOT INVOLVING CONVERSION CHAPTER XIV SOURCES OF DATA There are some Christian churches which have never taught the doctrine of conversion, but which look upon the attainment of spiritual life simply as a process of even and continuous development. It is for the pur- pose of gaining an insight into the nature of religious growth of the gradual and relatively uneventful kind that the present study sets out. We shall have to inquire, What are the lines along which individuals seem to develop ? If there are no sharp points of transition, what are the essential characteristics of each period in the individual's religious life history? What, in bold outlines, ar6 the differences between the faith of childhood and that of maturity, and what are the steps which mark the progress? What are the forces, both subjective and external, which determine • the trend of development ? The present study is conse- quently in part -a supplement to the preceding, so that we shall have occasion incidentally to stop and inquire into the likeness and difference between the two types of experiences. It is primarily, however, an objective inquiry into the laws of growth shown by a comparative study of the religious lives of groups of persons. The progress of this gradual-grov/th type is usually just as definite as that of the cases we have been studying. The persons are generally as capable of self- analysis, but there are no sudden crises which mark the disappearance of an old life and the beginning of a new, .183 1 84 THE PSYCHOLOGY- OF RELIGION It was occasionally found difficult to separate the cases into the two groups. It sometimes occurs that definite religious awakening is not called a conversion by persons who are not accustomed to that specific terminology. On the other hand, a religious experience was in a few instances called a conversion when it was specifically said by the respondent that the experience had no especial significance. Whenever the awakening was definite enough, in the opinion of the respondent, to mark a complete change in life, it was classed as a conversion, and those in which the conversion phenomenon was pro- fessedly only a mere incident in growth were included among the gradual -growth cases. Usually, however, the judgment of the respondent was followed implicitly as to whether he or she belonged to the first or second group. The raw material for the research was wholly from autobiographies ; those in books were usually dis- appointing, being too external and descriptive, and too barren in any record of inner experience. The published records which were finally judged as com- plete enough on the religious side to be included in the study were the following: Harriet Martineau, Mary Livermore, Frances Power Cobbe, George Eliot, Tolstoi, Carlyle, Ruskin, Frederick Robertson, Charles Kingsley and Goethe. The greatest number of records were written directly in reply to printed lists of questions sent out at three different times. The wording of the question lists varied slightly, though the substance was practically identical. The majority were in response to this syllabus : — ' I. What religious customs did you observe in child- hood, and with what likes and dislikes ? What were the chief temptations of your youth ? How were they felt, and how did you strive to resist ? What errors and struggles have you had with {a) lying and other dis- honesty, {U) wrong appetites for foods and drinks, {c) vita sexualis ? what relation have you noticed between SOURCES OF DATA 185 this and moral and religious experiences ? id) laziness, jealousy, etc. 'II. Influences, good and bad, which have been especially strong in shaping your life — parental training, books, friends, church, music, art, natural phenomena, deaths, personal struggles, misfortunes, etc. ? 'III. If you have passed through a series of beliefs and attitudes, mark out the stages of growth and what you feel now to be the trend of your life. ' IV. Were there periods at which growth seemed more rapid ; times of especially deepened experience ; any sudden awakening to larger truth, new energy, hope and love ? At what age were they ? How did they come — some crisis, a death, meditation, some unaccount- able way, etc. ? ' V. Have you had a period of doubt or of reaction against traditional customs and popular beliefs ? When and how did it begin and end, if at all? Have you noticed any relapses or especially heightened experi- ences ? How did they come, and with what were they connected ? 'VI. What motives have been most prominent at different times — fears, remorse, wish for approval of others, sense of duty, love of virtue, divine impulse, desire to grow, etc. ? In what ways do your feelings respond religiously to God, nature, institutions, people, etc.? 'VII. State a few truths embodying your deepest feelings. What would you now be and do if you realised your ideals of the higher life ? 'VIII. Age, sex, temperament, church (if any), and nationality.' The number of cases represented in the study is two hundred and thirty-seven (237) ; females, one hundred and forty-two (142), males, ninety-five (95)- The respondents were mostly native-born Americans, pretty generally distributed among the States. Of other nationalities there were English, 14 ; German, 4; Scotch, Missing Page Missing Page CHAPTER XV THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD We shall have to depend for our picture of the religion of childhood upon the reminiscences of the^ respondents to Question I. of the syllabus. It is uncertain to what extent the statements are valid, vitiated as they must be by defects in memory, and by the colouring that childhood must receive when interpreted in terms of mature life. On a priori grounds one would suppose that the roots of religion are very complex, and run back into the very earliest years of childhood. It is doubtful if we have any accurate scientific knowledge of its very beginnings ; perhaps the nearest approach to it will be gained through careful observation by parents and teachers of the acts and sayings of children who are unconscious of being observed. In the absence of any knowledge whatsoever of a scientific nature in regard to the religion of childhood, any facts which seem to carry with them a considerable degree of probability may be of value. In interpreting the childhood religion of the cases before us, it is important to bear in mind that they are of a special class. There is great uniformity in regard to the character of the earlier training in some of its outward aspects ; nearly all report careful teaching and the usual habits of attending church and Sunday school, or family prayer, the evening prayer, and such other observances as are of distinctly Christian custom. There are eight females and five males who have had THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 189 no special religious training, and twelve females and two males reared under more or less unfavourable conditions religiously. / The most marked feature of childhood religion shown is that of credulity. Children, for the most part, accept in an unquestioning way the ideas taught in church, Sunday school and home, and unconsciously conform to them. One woman writes : ' The same thing happened every day as far back as I can remember ; that is, I would go to church and catechism on Sunday, and say my prayers night and morning before retiring and on arising. Everything was done in a mechanical way, though, until I was about seventeen or eighteen, then it dawned upon me that I had a conscience. I saw that I was obeying the word of the law instead of the spirit' The following quotations will help to com- plete the picture : F. ' I had always been taught that there was a God, and took it as a matter of course, never doubting my parents' word.' F. ' I said my prayers faithfully, but had no real religious experience until 13.' M. 'I went through religious exercises as a matter of course, and with entire faith.' M. ' I simply accepted for truth what my parents and pastor said.' M. ' I tried to experience everything I saw, but gener- ally, I think, with poor success.' In this class of instances the element of imitation J is more noticeable among girls, and that of obedience among boys. Women repeatedly mention the extent to which they have been influenced in their training by the example of those about them or by the unselfishness of parents or teachers. Men, on the contrary, frequently mention the fact of religious observance, simply because it was required by parents, or because it had never occurred to them to question the rightness of the customs of those about them. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that credulity and conformity were universally present in childhood ; incredulity and distrust frequently begin to show themselves in very early years. M. ' As a child I I90 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION had no faith before I was 9 ; I never received any rehgious instruction without questioning it. My teach- ing was very orthodox ; I questioned everything to myself; I don't remember that I ever thought of speak- ing of it to anyone.' F. ' I had a secret distrust of God who permitted the sufferings of Christ.' F. ' My father died when I was 6. I prayed that he might come back ; my prayer was not answered, and it shook my faith in prayer.' The cases would easily form a series from extreme credulity to distrust and doubt, with far the larger number of instances falling on the side of credulity. A similar phenonienon to credulity is described in such phrases as the following : F. ' I do not remember the time when I wasn't vitally concerned in religion.' F. ' I think religion began with my birth.' M. ' I always felt myself a child of God.' These differ from credulity in that the fact of religion or of religious teaching never seemed to rise to the surface. We shall call this type of experience unconscious observance. It is the case in which religion is the atmosphere in which the child lives, and which it breathes in the same unconscious way as it breathes the air. The second most pronounced feature is the close rapport of the child with a supernatural world. This shows itself variously ; the most marked aspect, of it is the intimate relationship of the child with an external being which naturally it names ' God ' or ' Christ.' God is almost invariably of human form, usually living above the child in the clouds or sky, or hovering near it. God is almost never regarded as a spirit, but is a concrete existence external to the child. As a consequence, the relationship of the child with God or Christ is not one of fear or awe so much as one of intimacy. F. ' I asked God to do things on condition that I would do a certain part.' M. ' I always asked God for the most trivial things.' F. ' I felt that God was on my side.' F. ' I told God many things I would not tell my parents.' F. ' I used to use the most endearing terms to God, think- THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 191 ing He would be more likely to listen.' M. ' I loved Jesus with all the fervour of a child's heart.' F. ' I had implicit confidence in God's love for me.' F. ' I always asked God to do "things for me, and promised Him things if He would answer my prayer.' As these quota- tions suggest, the relationship is that of love and trust. The child uses God for its own petty ends, it bargains with Him. God and heaven more frequently exist for the child and not the child for them. Fears are common, though they occur less frequently than love and trust. F. ' I knew God to be loving and kind, but He filled me with awe and terror ; there seemed to be a great gulf between us.' F. ' God was an awful, merciless being.' F. ' The sense that God was watching over me frightened me in the night. I prayed and repeated, " I am Jesus' little lamb," and felt secure.' M. 'Asa child I had a terrible fear of hell.' The fears shade off into awe and reverence, but this feel- ing, as will be seen from the following table, is almost never present. The sense of right and wrong germinates early, and is evidently one of the most potent factors in childhood religion. F. ' I remember a sense of duty influencing my childhood before I was 4 years old.' F. ' When I would lie I would be struck with fear and hatred of myself, and prayed not to do it again.' M. ' I could not sleep until I had said my evening prayer.' M. ' As a child I tried to do right always.' F. ' I had no religious training, but prayed a good deal to be made good.' F. ' When 7 I stole some "cookies. I worried over it for three days. I confessed to pod, wept and prayed, but felt that something more was necessary. Finally I confessed to mother, and was forgiven.' The relative significance of the groups of facts given above may be seen in Table XVI IL It will be seen that credulity and conformity occurred in at least about one-half of the cases, and intimate re- lationship with God in about one-third of them. These are points of value to ^he teacher and parent. It is the 192 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Per Cent, of Cases FOR EACH Item. Females. Males / Credulity, Conformity, etc. .... \ Religiously Inclined from Childhood . Incredulity ....... i Bargaining with God ..... God as Talisman ..... God and Heaven near at Hand . Love and Trust in God .... Sum of four preceding — Intimate Relationship with God Awe and Reverence ..... Fears — of Future, of God, etc. . , . Dislikes for Religious Observances Pleasure in Religious Observances Keen Sense of Right and Wrong . 31 1^ 4 • 5 14 17 40 4 16 9 17 22 59 19 5 2 " 5 5 12 24 7 7 21 7 IS Table XVIII. — Showing the relative prominence of some features of_child- hood religion. time, apparently, when nature means that children shall be receptive of the influences in their surroundings. The long duration of childhood has been pointed out as one of the conditions of advancing civilisation. It is the time in which the child can drink in the best of its social environment.^ It is significant in this connection that incredulity is relatively absent. , It is a fact also of pedagogical value that fear is less^ prominent than love. If the persons we are studying are representative, the prominence of fear in childhood has doubtless been often over-emphasised.^ Awe and reverence, which are doubtless the irradiation of fear, and which are often regarded as among the highest religious feelings, are also conspicuously absent.^ They appear to develop later, as was probably true in racial history. ^ Compare John Fiske, The Destiny of Man, chap. vi. ^ See, for example, G. Stanley Hall, 'A Study of Fears,' American Joiv-nal of Psychology, Vol. VIII., p. 147 et seq. ' Compare James Manineau, Tytes of Ethical Theory, Vol. II., p. 206. THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 193 The budding of conscience so early is an important point. It may be one of tlie principal lines along which the religious consciousness is to unfold. It has been customary to regard the development of the moral life as coming relatively late. Felix Adler, for example, says ' the moral life does not assume its distinctive character until after several years of human existence have elapsed.'^ It was a surprise to find credulity so much more common among the boys than among the girls, by a ratio of 59 to 31. A little light is thrown on it by a comparison of this item with the others in the table. For example, the girls express a pleasure in religious observances more frequently than the boys by a ratio of 17 to 7 ; while, on the contrary, boys express a distinct dislike for them more often than the girls by a ratio of 21 tog. Again, an intimate relationship with God or Christ is much more distinctively true of the girls, and they likewise have a keener sense of right and wrong. The boys, on the other hand, look on religion as ob- jective and external more than two and a half times as often. These considerations would seem to indicate that girls are more imaginative, more actively responsive to their surroundings, perhaps are more precocious, than the boys, and that religion has for them a more vital sig- nificance. This falls in line with the differences we have already noticed between the sexes, namely, that girls are more impressionable, they drink in their environment at an earlier age, and work it over into something of personal significance. The tone of the replies shows this difference more clearly than do statistics. The descriptions of the childhood religion of the women picture it as more sincere, earnest and vital. A few quotations will make the difference clear. ' From my earliest childhood I have had an appreciation of what a religious life should be. I said my- prayers faithfully, and felt if I neglected them that I could not sleep.' ' I cannot remember when, in my childish way, I did not ' Felix Adler, Moral Instruction of Children, 1898, p. 47. 194 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION love and fear God.' ' I have always been a Christian, I think, reared as I was by Christian parents, and brought up in the atmosphere of the church which I loved.' ' My parents' instruction took root early. I was a re- ligious child ; religious ideas were from the first interest- ing and attractive to me. I was spontaneously grateful to God, and really loved him.' Such statements as these are, of course, not absent from the records of the males, but they are much less frequent. They occur more than twice as often among the females. It should be borne in mind that they are relatively rare among both sexes. In fact, one of the- most pronounced characteristics of the religion of childhood, as has been hinted in the quotations heretofore, is that religion is distinctively ex- ternal to the child rather than something which possesses inner significance. This we have seen reflected in the credulity and obedience, and in the external and con- crete character of God and Christ. These are typical illustrations : F. ' Religion consisted chiefly in outer observance. I accepted the doctrines taught me, but was not really interested in them, although I had a distinct idea of right and wrong.' F. ' Up to 14 I believed that a real live person, God, hovered over me constantly, and was conscious of my every act.' M. ' I was counselled to love and fear God, and to obey every word of His Holy Scriptures. This God was part of my childhood, always present, though never near. He never entered into my life, but remained outside, and kept an eye on it.' We shall have occasion in a later chapter to see in what way religion becomes gradually transformed from its distinctive character as external observance to a life that is lived from within. CHAPTER XVI ADOLESCENCE — SPONTANEOUS RELIGIOUS AWAKENINGS The period of adolescence is somewhat naturally marked off by the facts at hand as extending from lo or ii years to the age of 24 or 25. This agrees only fairly well with the common use of the term. It is the custom to regard puberty as the index of the beginning of adolescence. This is the result of interpreting adoles- cence in physiological terms ; but if it is viewed from a psychological standpoint, we shall find that its earlier limit is pushed back by two or three years. In so far as there are any definite events which mark the end of the adolescent period, they agree pretty well in placing it at about 25. Clouston, for example, who makes the period coincide with that of the development of the functions of reproduction, and accordingly to end with the full perfection of these functions, places the limit at 25.^ Foster's Medical Dictionary puts the end of adolescence at 25 for boys and 21 for girls. There is considerable individual, sex and race variation in regard to both the initial and later limit, which for our purpose does not need to be taken into account. Adolescence is, in some respects, the most interesting period from the standpoint of religious development, as from every other point of view. It is the great formative period. Youth has stored up vast under-currents of will and emotion, and cross-currents which oppose and ' Clouston, Mental Diseases, Lecture 16 ; also Neuroses of Develop- ment, pri2. iQi; 196 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION conspire to bring about the most varied and contra- dictory phenomena. For this reason it is also one of the most difficult periods to study. The whole religious history of adolescence, as it pictures itself in the cases before us, is too large and complex to grasp except in fragments. Now one stream of tendency, and now another, arises in bold relief and reveals the forces at work in human life. Certain aspects of adolescence will consequently be taken up in turn, and will be seen later falling into harmony. I . The Period of Clarification. Late in childhood, at the beginning of adolescence, there is a more or less definite clearing of the religious atmosphere ; it appears to be the rule with girls, and is frequent among the boys. As we have already seen, the ideas of God and duty and religious observance have been external to the child during the earlier years, but now they take root in his life and have a vital significance. Heretofore they have been embodied in precept or custom or his own playful imagination. Now they have begun to be his own. Often the growth from within has been unconscious, and the freshly organised little world presents itself to the child as something large and new, and with an emotional accompaniment. The awakening is manifested variously. In putting the instances together, they fell naturally into three groups — a fresh insight' involving a distinct rational element ; a first-hand perception of right and wrong ; and an emotional response. These instances illustrate : — Insight-.- — F. ' One morning, when a child coming home from church, as I was walking in at the gate, the thought came to me, " There is a God." I had always been taught it, but never realised it until just at that' time.' F. ' Whgn 1 1 I awoke to the realisation of deeper truths.' M. ' At puberty I became more serious and rationally conscious.' M. 'When 15 I began to realise ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 197 for myself the importance of prayer, and to feel that God was a Spirit.' Moral. — F. ' When 9 the seeds which had been sown began to grow. I did wish earnestly to be good. I would go into lonely places to pray.' F. ' When 10 I became especially good at home and at school. I do not know what made me think so, but I thought God loved me better. It influenced me for good for a long time after that' M. ' My inward development began at this time (14), marked by a general clearing up of moral ideas.' M. ' I told a lie when 14 (I had done evil things before, certainly). The lie revealed to me my conscience.' Emotional. — F. ' When ill had a sudden and violent awakening — a continuous state of religious fervour. I had had a dangeroys illness.' F. ' When 10 I had a sense of being saved. My religious nature was awakened and I felt for myself the need of religion.' M. ' While sitting alone at home one Sunday, thinking of religious duties, I heard a distinct voice within me, " My Son, give me thy heart." '' F. ' On one occasion (10 years of age), while singing the hymn ending. " Repentant to the skies," etc., I remember lifting up my arms and feeling as if a Divine Presence were in the room ; so strong was the feeling that I drew back my arms and said to myself, " Why, that must have been God." I was in my room alone at the time.' Grouping these and similar instances, we have Table XIX. The gross result is that there is a pretty definite period of clarification with at least half of Ihe girls and a third of the boys. (Complete records would doubt- less have made the percentages higher). It is thus seen to be a very common phenornenon for the innocence of childhood to give place suddenly to religious intuitions ^ which arise unexpectedly. The age when such clarifica- tions occur, as will be seen from the table, is on the average about 11 for girls and 13 for boys. The exact age was not always given. This, with the fewness of the cases among males makes the average ages put in 198 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Females. Males. Clarification showing Itself as — Per Cent. Average Per Cent. Average of Cases Age. of Cases. Age. Insight .... 10 12.9 7 (12) Moral .... 17 10.6 II 14. 1 Emotional 21 10.6 5 (12.2) Unclassified . 3 (9-1) 9 13-7 Sum of above . 51 10.9 32 13.2 Table XIX. — Showing some facts in regard to religious clarification at the beginning of adolescence. parentheses in the table too uncertain to build on. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that there is a difference of about 2\ years between the sexes, which coincides with the difference which is usually supposed to exist in the maturity of the sexes at this period. The number of cases of boys were scattered, but the ages fall principally between 11 and 15 ; those of the girls range from 8 to 16, but mostly from 10 to 12 inclusive. The cases of girls in which the exact age was given form this series : — Number of Cases Age . 7 13 10 10 2 4 3 I 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 The year of greatest frequency is 10, which is likewise the time of sudden increment in the number of cases of conversion. It is instructive to compare these ages with those of conversion as shown in Part L The rapid increase in the number of these sudden beginnings is at 10, while in conversion it was at 11. It is significant that girls first awaken most frequently on the emotional side and least often to new insight into truth. The boys, on the contrary, have the emotional awakening least frequently, but organise their spiritual world most often as a moral one. In these first beginnings of religion, we have doubt- less a glimpse into the most vital and primal elements ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 11)5 in it. It is as if suddenly the curtain were lifted and one had a glimpse into those forces which have been lying dormant during the earlier years of child- hood. The emotional outburst may be interpreted as a sudden realisation in consciousness of the latent life — forces which express themselves in terms indefinable to clear consciousness. The sudden intellectual perception into the significance of religion seems to signify the expression of this energy with an intellectual con- comitant. In the sudden budding of conscience and the perception of the moral worth of things, we are tracing one step further the ethical root of religion, which we saw already showing itself in childhood. 2. Spontaneous Awakenings. The phenomena we have just noticed are not to be distinguished in character from those which come all through adolescence. They are distinguishable from these we are now to consider only by being the first awakenings to a vital experience of religious truth, generally after a credulous and thoughtless childhood. Similar experiences are liable to occur at any time during adolescence ; even after joining church or being confirmed, or engaging in active religious work, there is often a deepening of feeling, a fresh outburst of life, a sudden revival of interest. The nature of these experiences will be made clear by a few typical instances : F. ' Father died when I was 15. He was not a church member. I determined I would stand or fall with him. I was hostile to religion, and looked on it stoically. I came to the conviction when 17 that I was living far below my ideals. The pressure became too great. A spon- taneous emotional awakening came which lasted three months. At the end of that time I joined church. The pressure from without and the desire to please mother do not seem sufficient to explain it' M, ' While walking along a woodland pasture one Sabbath 200 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION morning (24 years) I experienced an unusual realisa- tion of the goodness and love of God. It was the richest moment of blessing that ever came to me.' F. ' I grew up into the simple, strong, pure faith of my parents. When 15 I began to think more of God as a personal element in my life, turning, to Him for comfort.' M. 'When attending holy communion at 16, I was filled with a wonderful feeling and lifted up to a sense of my duty. It was a spontaneous awakening within me.' We have in these instances experiences with which we are already more or less familiar from the study of conversion. The phenomena here suggested are very closely related, in the purest instances, to conversions of the milder type. Let us inquire what relation they bear to conversions. The distinction is in part purely one of terminology. Had a few of the deepened experiences we are now studying happened to those accustomed to describe them in evangelical phraseology, they would doubtless have been called conversions. There seems to be no dividing line between the most decisive trans- formations from sin to righteousness which all would acknowledge to be conversions, and the milder forms we are now considering, and which clearly fall outside of that distinction. They form a continuous series. The distinction at the extremes of the series is clear. Spon- taneous awakenings represent some phase of the larger experience embodied in conversion ; though they lack the all-aroundness of the latter. The conviction pheno- - menon, the feelings which follow the awakening, the sense of a definite change in life, or some equally impor- tant aspect of conversion, is usually wanting in individual instances. The following case will illustrate : M. 'I had been on the rocks all day, shut off by the tide. I took little thought of time, but all day looked out upon the waves which came rolling up to me and then receded. I was awed by the forces and manifestations before me, and on that day I came to wonder if it were possible for everything to proceed in so regular a way unless there ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 201 were a God who had designed it and who managed it all. All at once there came over me a sudden feeling of insignificance, and a sense of the immensity of the universe, of the existence and omnipresence of God. I fell upon my knees there, and my inmost being seemed to commune with something higher than myself By this time the tide was down, and I walked back as the sun was setting ; life seemed new, I had been lifted up, the field of vision was larger, there was within me a love of mankind, and a determination to bear the burden of others.' This experience in its definiteness, its sudden- ness, and in the new feeling toward life which followed, is similar to conversion. It is more like the vision which comes to the poet or to the philosopher ; it was not preceded by a sense of unworthiness, and as the awak- ening was not followed by a definite turning about, a reformation, it is such an event as might occur again, or often. The^ more striking experiences gradually shade off into those which are attended simply by a deepening of feeling and increased enthusiasm, of a more or less sudden character, in spiritual things. That at some time during adolescence there should come a fresh awakening of religious feeling is, provided the data we are studying are representative, the rule rather than the exception. From the fact that they shade off into common ex- periences, it is an arbitrary matter to limit the class, and consequently to give a statistical estimate. An attempt to do so, keeping only fairly distinct cases, such as are quoted above, and including with them 'joining the church,' when it was a vital step, gives the following result : among the females 80 per cent., and among the males 68 per cent, pass through such experiences ; or, we may say in round numbers, that they are present in about three- fourths of the cases. Further evidence that they are a common occurrence may be found in Dr Lancaster's study of adolescence.' Oi 598 respondents ' E. G. Lancaster, ' Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,' p. 95, Pedagogical Seminary, 1897. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION to his questions, 518 report new religious inclinations between 12 and 25. He makes the generalisation that ' more than five out of six have had these religious emotions.' As we should expect, the age at which religious awakenings occur tends to mark off a definite period in life. The exact age was not always given ; in all there were 88 cases among the females and 50 among the males who specified the age. The distribution of these according to years is shown in Figure 12. 9.0 \b \& K \t, O I- vo K 6 ■ - 1 \ J — V \ — »- \ 1 r - \ y \ \ t \ \ 1 1 1 \ : \ 1 ~ '' \ \ / \ y ' * \ / \ ' \ / \ / \ M F M / \ / \ y \ TEAKS T a 9 v5) \\ \a v^ vfc- vj \b K\ \ti \s 10 M 21 i^ Figure 12. — Showing the distribution according to years of cases of spontaneous awakenings deepened interest^ etc. = Girls. - - - := Boys. Distance to the right indicates the age, and upward indicates the per cent, of the whole number which occur at any given year. Thus, 12.6 per cent, of the awaken- ings of girls were at 10 years. For both sexes they nearly all fall between the years 10 and 21. There are only a few scattered ones before or after those ages. ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 203 Another small set of statistics not included in the present study was collected from among the soldiers of the standing army. Of 32 cases of religious awakening, they fell, with only two or three exceptions, between the years 13 and 21 ; the larger number in Dr Lancaster's study also fell between 12 and 20.' This much we may say with certainty, that spon- taneous awakenings are distinctly adolescent phenomena. Although these instances are almost wholly limited to adolescence, there are a few scattered ones later on. There is one instance as late as 55. M. ' I graduated from H at 45 ; for 10 years I practised medicine, then, without any definite plan or human purpose, I became an ordained clergyman. It was a new unfolding in which I had nothing more to do, seemingly, than does the bud in blossoming. I had always followed a slow movement onward and upward.' This occurred in a person who had been active mentally throughout his life, but whose opportunities for intellectual pursuits had not kept pace with his interests in that direction. It is conceivable that a ' new unfolding ' of this sort might occur at any time in life, provided an ideal is kept fresh in advance of present possibilities, and that the physiological functions which underlie development are still active. It is hardly probable that it would occur later than 55, which is the average age at which the nervous system begins its decline in weight, and possibly in its capacity for undergoing definite changes.^ As will be seen from the curves in the figure, the distribution throughout the years bears a striking simi- larity to that of conversion. The number of cases is too few to produce curves of very great regularity, but by comparing those in the figure with the ones for con- version in Figure i, one sees that there is a tendency here, just as in those, for each of the curves to have three peaks. Those in curve F (for females) are at 10 to 12, ^ E. G. Lancaster, ' Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,' p. 95, Pedagogical Seminary, 1897. " See H. H. Donaldson, Growth of the Brain, p. 325. 204 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION at IS and i8 respectively: in M (for males) they are at II to 12, -15 and 18 to 21 respectively. The earlier peak for the girls is larger than the later one, w^hile exactly the reverse is true for boys. The tallest peak for both sexes is the middle one. The average age of these deepened experiences and of conversions closely correspond. The average age of spontaneous awakenings from this study is 13.7 years for females, and 16.3 years for males; from Dr Lan- caster's study of 200 autobiographies is 16 for males ; the average age for conversion is 14.8 for females, and 16.4 for males. We have in these facts a strong suggestion of the connection between conversion and spontaneous awak- enings. The greatest evidence of their likeness or difference, to be sure, must be looked for in the content of the experiences, rather than in a statistical compari- son. On the surface, however, it appears that there is a close connection. We have noticed that both sets of phenomena are sharply marked off between the same years, that the average age of their occurrence differs by only a fraction of a year, and also that the peculiar dis- tribution through the years is very similar. It is safe to say that conversion is not a unique experience, but has its correspondences in the common events of religious growth. There is, however, this difference that should be noted, namely, that spontaneous awakenings come earlier than conversions. Religious awakenings begin about a year earlier in both sexes than do conversions, and the periods of greatest frequency — that is, the large middle peaks in both curves — likewise culminate one year earlier. The explanation of this difference may be found, in part, in the fact that the awakenings are not so deep-going and vital. It would appear that the religious ideal embodied in the dogma of conversion gets hold of a normal tendency in life and emphasises it ; rather than hastening the normal trend of religious life, it tends to deepen it; it establishes a standard of conduct which must be thorough-going and full of significance to be ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 205 experienced at all, and consequently which requires some degree of maturity to undergo. Having now before us all the available data in regard to the age of religious awakening of both the cataclysmic and the milder type, we may sum up what they seem to show most concisely by expressing in the form of curves the frequency of their occurrence. This is shown in Figure 13. /'i5i\ / 155 '•■ GIRLS BOYS S 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Figure 13. — Composite curves of religious awakenings. The curves are not drawn directly from statistics, but are meant to be composites of all the curves we have studied. They leave out minor details, and take the general trend. We may call them the curves of proba- bility that religious awakening should occur at any definite year in each of the sexes. The curves show that religious awakenings of all kinds are mostly con- fined to adolescence — say, between the years 10 and 21. They seem to indicate that religious feeling comes as a tidal wave which £iilmiiiate& shortly after puberty, and that lesser waves precede and follow its crest. Let us sum up the conditions underlying the varia- tions in the curves, together with the additional evidence adduceable from the present study. The earlier outburst 2o6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION which gives rise to the peaks at about 12 is fuller of religious feeling, and more liable to come among girls. These awakenings come at a period when there is a sudden impetus in almost all aspects of mental life. The second rise in the curves, most frequently at 15^ in both sexes, is the more important one, and appears to have some relation with puberty, and to be more or less con- nected with the rapid development in weight which comes near the time of puberty. As we saw in the study of Conversion, the religious awakenings seem to supplement puberty, to follow it by a little, and perhaps to be somewhat definitely, although remotely, connected with it. . There is a little fresh evidence to corroborate the previous facts. The study of deepened experiences among the soldiers of the American army heretofore referred to indicates the same relations between the two . events as was shown in conversion. Religious awaken- ing occurs most frequently at 17, while in these same subjects puberty came most often at 14 and 15. Aside from the evidence suggested by the concurrence of the two periods as shown in the statistics, there is consider- able evidence of their connection in the statement of the respondents in regard to their inner experiences. M. ' I was confirmed at 15 ; contemplation of the awfulness of sin nearly overwhelmed me. At this same time I had one continual struggle with sexual passion.' M. ' At 14 came my first interest in Christianity ; it was at this time that I first yielded to a secret sin against my body.' M. ' When deeply moved religiously at 16, evil made its appearance ; by prayer arid faith I withstood it' M. ' (When 14) I had a terrific love affair. I conceived a fondness for the Stoics and bought an Epictetus, which I read with interest.' A pointed evidence of the relation is shown in the character of the two curves, that of the girls being more rounding and less decisive in its middle peak, while that of the boys rises much higher at this point than at any other year. This agrees with the character of the physiological event, which is far more climacteric in the case of males. For a long time it has ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 207 been customary to point out the connection between spiritual exaltation and the sexual instinct. ' At the time when Anstie wrote,' says Mr Havelock Ellis, ' the connection between spiritual exaltation and organic conditions was not so plain as it is at present, but he had clearly perceived the special facility with which the ecstatic condition passes over into sexual emotion. Since then the almost constant connection between ecstasy and sexual emotion has been fairly well re- cognised. The phenomena of the religious life generally are to a large extent based on the sexual life.'^ Although, as will be shown in a later chapter, t^fis connection is a remote one, and the religious instinct in its higher development is dependent upon other con- ditions and has other sources, nevertheless, the various phenomena — accession to puberty, rapid physical de- velopment, transformations in mental life, and spon- taneous religious awakenings — are so closely interwoven that we may say with certainty that they have had in evolutionary development a direct and intimate relation. The third rise in the curves seems to correspond to a period of mental maturity, as the second rise does to physical maturity. The same thing was observed in the study of conversion. This distinction has been clearly recognised by students of adolescence whose point of view has been a distinctly physiological one. Dr Bierent, for example, divides puberty into three stages — the premonitory stage, puberty itself, and the succeeding stage. The last one follows the others by a year or so. He characterises it thus : ' He (the young man) is no longer astonished at his sensations ; he reasons about them. His ideas become more serious and his judgment more certain. He is in the perfect blossoming of intelligence and memory.' ^ Clouston, in like manner, distinguishes the adolescent period, connected directly with puberty, from the later ^ Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 295 ; also Burnham, ' A Study oi KAo\e%c&-nce,' Fedagogical Seminary, Vol. I., p. 181. ^ Leon Bierent, La Puberti, Paris, 1896, p. 36. 2o8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION stage, from 1 8 years on. The latter one is more clearly marked by development in the higher cortical centres; or, on the psychical side, by a development in the higher aspects of the mental life.^ A qualitative study of the experiences which come at the time of the third rise in the curves shows that they are more mature and have a greater degree of insight, in this respect being different in kind from those that come at the earliest period. This is more charac- teristic of the boys than of the girls, a fact which will have considerable significance in the discussions which follow. These three periods mark off three crises in adoles- cent development ; they are periods in which the life- forces tend upward toward the higher brain centres. At this time the latent energy which has been stored up during the activities of childhood, and even during racial life, becomes actualised and expressed in terms of the higher psychic life. This energy is expressed not only in an emotional and rational form, as the evidences already adduced would seem to show, but also in motor terms. A rather common aspect of adolescent religion is that the youth sets out to do things; it is a period of heightened spiritual activity. The average age of the beginning of heightened activity is 13.6 years for females, and 17 years for males. F. ' I began to take an active interest in church when I was 10.' M. 'When 16 religious faith became the all-absorbing interest of my life, and I thought it should be for all men.' F. 'When 16 I became ultra-evangelical ; I was proud and impetuous at the same time that I cultivated self-renunciation. Ascetic tendencies were strong ; I thought pleasures were a snare ; I was over-humble.' F. ' I held myself (when 16) responsible to God for my life and the use of it. Under different circumstances I should have wished to be a sister of charity ; as it was, I thought the missionary the ideal person. I exalted everything ^ Clouston, Neuroses of Development, p. no et seq. ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 20$ religious and admired the old Puritan ideal. Before I united with the church I threw myself into all its activities, and considered secular demands of slight moment' A study of the records indicates that 26 per cent, of the females and 20 per cent, of the males, or about one-fourth of all the subjects studied, pass, dur- ing adolescence, through a period of marked religious activity. In Lancaster's study of 200 biographies, 58 of them mention times of great energy and unusual activity during adolescence. The fact that females have such periods more frequently than males might give rise to the inference that females are more given to religious activity than males, which would be in direct contra- diction to what we shall see later. With males the active element is more constant throughout youth, while the females, as will be seen, are more apt to fluctuate between activity and feeling. The distribution of these experiences through the years is nearly the same as that of the deepened experiences already noticed. This fact seems to indicate that the emotional awakening and the heightened activity which expresses itself in enthusiasm in church work, or in the missionary spirit, are two aspects of the same thing. It is a newly-realised energy which passes over directly into conduct. The dips in the curves are partly explained by the discussion of the peaks, but they deserve more than a passing word. They correspond to periods of indifference, which are marked by spiritual callousness. The con- ditions underlying this peculiarity have already been discussed. They are found in part in the fact that the religious development either supplements some other phase of activity — the life energy now expending itself in one direction, now in another ; or that it comes along with some other aspect of development as its normal correlative. The causes are to be looked for in the ebb and flow of religious feeling ; in the same individual, emotion is rhythmical. In the cases studied, 15 per cent, of the females and 13 per cent, of the males ex- perience two periods of marked religious interest, similar O 2lo THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION to the ones we have been describing. They are separated by from one to six or seven years, but usually by three or four years. The intervening period is often one of relaxation or indifference to religion. This will illus- trate : M. 'When ii, while others were professing conversion, I was strongly moved to take part. I was thought too young to understand, and 1 was much grieved at being repressed. I lost interest, and had a tendency to seek lively company. I had no more marked religious impressions until i8; at that time I became serious, thoughtful and penitent. I found in a few days there had been quite a change.' F. ' I joined church when 1 1. At about 1 3 there came a dark period of reaction ; it was the worst period of my child-life — of my whole life indeed. I was not sure I was a Christian, that I ever had been, or that I ever wanted to be. I was wayward, impatient of restraint, discontented, ill- tempered, selfish and hateful. I felt like doing the very things I knew I ought not to do. How I grew out of this period of restless unreligion I do not know. When our church was reorganised, when I was 15 or 16, I was glad to be in the fold again. There was some remorse for my past waywardness, but I soon felt that I had been forgiven and was happy in church life ; and it seemed as though those years of rebellion had been dropped out of my life.' In the restlessness and irrita- tion that are shown in this intervening period, one sees an evidence of the unsettled condition of the nervous system during the rapid growth period. In this par- ticular case it is accompanied by exaggerated sensitive- ness aroused by maladjustment of the complex growth processes. It is just as frequently marked, on the contrary, by deadening of the sensibility to finer im- pressions, and consequently by complete indifference to religion. F. 'For a little while before I was 16 I turned to other ideals ; I gave up trying. I felt myself very wicked. It seemed to me that some power outside of myself was turning me around. I never could say, " I was converted at such a time," but ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 211 after I was 16 I had given up the idea of being one thing and seeming another.' The case of John Stuart Mill, as related in his autobiography, is a classic one to illustrate complete callousness. ' I was thus, as I said to myself, left stranded at the commencement of my voyage, with a well-equipped ship and rudder but no sail ; without any real desire for the things which I had been so carefully fitted out to work for; no delight in virtue or the general good, but also just as little in anything else. The fountains of vanity and ambition seemed to have dried up within me as completely as those of benevolence. . . . Thus neither selfish nor unselfish pleasures were pleasures to me. ... I frequently asked myself if I could, or if I was bound to go on living, when life must be passed in this manner. I generally answered to myself that I did not think I could possibly bear it beyond a year.' Sometimes, especially among women, the fresh activity or enthusiasm shows itself first, only to be overtaken soon by relaxation, uncertainty and indiffer- ence. Sometimes, on the contrary, adolescence begins with uncertainty and indifference, often accompanied by pain, and activity seems to come as a relaxation from the strain and tension under which the person is bound. With other temperaments these periods alternate with rhythmical regularity. A study of double awaken- ings reveals this interesting coincidence : in the case of females, the first experience is, on an average, at 12.1 years, and the second at 15.4, making a difference of 3.3 years. Among the males the average of the first is 13.7 and of the second 18.2, with a difference of 4.5 years. This rise and fall in religious interest or activity in individuals seems to correspond almost exactly to the dip in the curves for groups of individuals. Until we know more of the conditions which underlie the ebb and flow of the emotional life of adolescence, this period of religious activity and indifference must simply be accepted as a fact. It is often remarked by persons who have had long experience in dealing with young 212 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION people, that there are periods when efforts at religious culture are apparently almost entirely futile. If the cases we are studying are representative, such a period is definite and frequent enough to raise the question vigorously, What is the proper regimen of an adolescent during these periods? Should the efforts at spiritual training be intensified, or, on the contrary, should they relax and await the time when there is an active response to higher influences? That such a period exists, suggests at least the necessity for patience in the treatment of youth — that at such times the boy or girl is not necessarily hopelessly given over to the control of evil. The spiritual callousness which shows itself on the surface, we are able to say with some degree of certainty, may be simply an indication that the life- forces are expending themselves in other directions, and that if the surroundings are free and healthy and normal, new life and fresh insight and awakened enthusiasm will, in all probability, come in due time of themselves. CHAPTER XVII ADOLESCENCE — STORM AND STRESS Early adolescence is clearly a time above all others when new forces are beginning to act, new powers to function. They seem to well up out of the sea of the unconscious. They show themselves first as feeling — sometimes as a fresh burst of life, as we have seen, but more often with a pain accompaniment. Ferment of feeling, distress, despondency and anxiety are so common a feature of these years that for a long time early adolescence has been designated a period of ' storm and stress.' It is as if the being were strug- gling to give birth to new ideas and fresh life-forces, which it really does do a little later, as we shall see. It is as if one's being were strained or torn by the pent- up winds that sweep it, and which are trying in some way to vent themselves. It is by no means the exception, but the rule, for such a period to come. There is a well-marked display of the phenomenon in 70 per cent, of the females and 52 per cent, of the males. There are, fortunately, two other sets of statistics on the prominence of storm and stress. Mr A. C. Nutt, in an empirical study on 'The Advantages of Philo- sophical Training,' reports that Qj per cent, of the cases studied passed through such a period.^ In Dr Lancaster's study of adolescence, of "j^G respondents, 471, or 61.5 per cent., report spells of depression. ^ Mr Nutt's thesis was a dissertation published privately for the Master's Degree at Ohio State University, Columbus, O. 21^ 2 14 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION The nature of Mr Nutt's study naturally called out a special class of subjects, which may account for the slightly larger per cent, in his statistics. Dr Lancaster's cases, like those in the present study, may be regarded as representative. The three classes of statistics are strikingly in accord. It appears conclusive that over 60 per cent, of average American young people pass through such a period. Character of the Storm and Stress Experiences. The welling-up of new life-forces on to the plane of the higher consciousness is the central thing in the storm and stress phenomena ; but when this new life breaks at the surface, it manifests itself with as great variety as there is diversity, on the one hard, of tem- perament, and, on the other, of environmental conditions. When compared among themselves and viewed in their relations, these experiences form certain well-marked types, the most distinct of which we shall notice in turn. The most prominent of these types, is the sense of incompleteness and imperfection. Underneath the surface there has been a moving onward toward an ideal, but the ideal has not yet assumed definite outlines. A new personality has been taking shape, but it is enshrouded in a mist. There is the same disquietude and unrest and aching irritation that we saw preceding conver- sion. The following extracts will illustrate this state of mind : F. ' When 14 I had a pitiable struggle to do what I thought I ought. I often got out of bed and prayed for reconciliaticn and peace of mind. I struggled and strove to be willing to lead others to Christ' F. 'From 12 to 16 I lived a sort of up and down life-; I tried hard to be good. In times of deep trouble I have prayed and prayed in anguish of spirit.' F. ' I suffered for years, thinking the joys of religion were not for me.' M. ' From 16 to 20 was a period of struggle ; I came upon higher ideals and did not live ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 215 up to them even approximately.' One sees in these instances, either explicitly or implicitly, the presence of a higher ideal, the difficulty of attaining it, and under- neath it all an incipient, constructive moral conscious- ness, which drives one on resistlessly toward some goal. One is often in a state of poise between various possibilities, and the uncertainty which is felt as to the proper mode of procedure increases the vexation of spirit. This is shown in the following instance : M. 'When about 18 I studied and thought long on the question of sanctification. The experience I sought was not. in the conquest of marked evil habits, and on the whole was rather vague. Two or three times with fear and nervous apprehension I took the start, saying, " Now I claim as mine perfect holiness " ; but I found nothing very different save a trying nervous strain of anxiety and painful' scrutiny lest some shade of thought should prove false my mental claim to perfect sanctification.' This feeling is often heightened until it becomes the sense of sin, with the meaning of which we have become familiar. The following quotations will suggest the similarity between that experience as it shows itself in these cases, and in those who pass through conversion : F. ' I was extremely nervous and passionate, and lacked self-control. I alternately sinned through weakness, and morbidly brooded over my wicked nature. At times I concluded I never could be good, and might as well not try; then would follow a long fit of remorse.' F. 'When 11 I began to think about the future. I became restless ; everything I did seemed to be wrong ; then I would make fresh resolves not to do it again.' M. 'When 17 I began, to seek salvation. I felt helpless and convicted of sin.' M. 'When 14 I fell in with wayward companions. I was upbraided by conscience. It was a terrible period of life; I felt remorseful and convicted of sin.' M. ' After my twelfth year I began to run with a set of boys whose influence was far from good. At first I was conscious I should not go with 2i6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION them and do the things they did ; every now and then something would come up to recall my old feelings, and for days I would be in great despair. About my fifteenth year I became once again very much interested in religious matters.' These experiences show the back- ground of the sense of sin and the sense of incomplete- ness ; they are the result of the present and ideal personality brought into contrast. There is a two-fold distinction between the sense of sin and the sense of incompleteness. On the one hand, the sense of sin is an exaggeration of the sense of incompleteness ; the hiatus between the ideal and the present attainment becomes so great that the latter is looked upon as something objective, as a thing in itself, and often as a thing which holds the personality in subjection. It is conditioned, perhaps, by an impulsive nature which is intermittently thrown into extremes of action and then into remorse. This is shown in the case above in which the person alternately sinned through weakness, and morbidly brooded over her wicked nature. On the other hand, the sense of sin is frequently distinguished from the sense of incompleteness by the presence in feeling of actual waywardness. A still further exaggeration of this same feeling is \h& fear of eternal punishment. The easiest explanation of these fears which come up in adolescence is that they are due to the sway of theological doctrines. A study of the cases reveals the fact, however, that they occa- sionally come to the front in persons whose religious training has been of the freest sort. This is well illustrated in the following experience of a woman reared in apparently the most liberal religious environ- ment. She writes : ' When 1 5 I began to have a horror of death. I did not believe in immortality, but had an almost frenzied despair at the idea of going out into nothingness. This grew until the idea made life infinitely, wretchedly hopeless to me. I would have become insane, I think, had hope not come.' Such experiences are due pretty clearly to organic physio- ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 217 logical conditions. It is apparently a haunting dread that comes over one when a larger spiritual world of truth is about to break in. It is apparently the idea of vastness, of infinity, that cannot be comprehended, and still must be grappled with. One woman writes : ' From 8 to 17 I had horrid fears of having to live an eternal life.' Such instances seem to be frequent, in which the idea of punishment is not the essential background of the feeling, but the sense of complete incapacity to grasp some large conception. It is a singular fact, which Dr Scott ' has brought out in his study of ' Old Age and Death,' that the thought of death, even when completely dissociated from religious conceptions, is most pronounced during adolescence. When life's forces are most rapidly becom- ing realised is the very time when the possibilities of its discontinuance appeal most strongly to consciousness. The feeling doubtless centres in the fact that the new personality is uncertain and unstable, and it feels vitally its own vacillating nature. In view of the fact that the most diverse development — towards virtue or genius or criminality, or whatever direction life takes — is usually begun in adolescence, it appears that youth often rightly interprets its instability and its liability to go out into nothingness. The point for us in this connection is that the fear of death and hell is not the. direct result of the religious doctrine. On the other hand, we may go behind the dogma and see the conditions on which it rests. A type of the storm and stress experience which is second in frequency is brooding, depression and morbid introspection. These quotations will illustrate : F. ' I was naturally reticent about religion. At a revival I rose for prayer. Afterwards I thought I wasn't a Christian. The pastor talked ,to me about joining the church — I couldn't talk to him. I went back into my old feeling of unrest, and grew more and more into ^ Colin Scott, op. at., American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VIII., p. 67. 2i8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION myself.' F. 'From 13 to 17 I became very morbid. I took but little interest in life at all. The cause was probably ill-health.' M. ' At 24 I fell into morbid hopelessness and unwise self-dissection. Every imper- fection was thought a sin.' F. ' I joined the church on probation when 12. I went home and cried, for I didn't feel happy. I did everything I could to appease my conscience; read the Bible, told mother everything, put aside my jewellery — felt very solemn and unhappy.' These experiences arise, just as those we have already noticed, both in connection with and outside of the dominance of religious doctrine. The conditions under- lying them are not different from those which give rise to the sense of incompleteness and the sense of sin. There is, however, as the cause of this type, a greater passivity of temperament, more of a feeling of inability to reach out and attain. It is only different from the sense of incompleteness in that "the degree of self- consciousness is greater. These distinctions are re- flected in the following instance. A woman writes : ' I was building up my character with more self- consciousness than a child should have, and setting up a Puritanical conscience to judge of my progress. I applied to myself everything that I heard, and mourned that I was so selfish and unstable.' Sometimes this brooding and self-condemnation passes over into a desire to make propitiation for unworthiness and sin- fulness ; this results in asceticism. F. 'From 13 to IS religious enthusiasm and mysticism ran high. I had read my father's books on the mystics. I practised fasting and mortification of the flesh. I secretly made burlap shirts and put the burs next the skin, and wore pebbles in my shoes. I would spend nights flat on my back on the floor without a covering.' M. ' I didn't enjoy religious observance, yet forced myself to it. As a matter of conscience I spent hours each week on my knees.' Still another type which helps to complete the picture of the storm and stress phenomenon is distress ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 219 over doubts. This development usually comes a little later than those we have been describing. F. ' When 16 the study of history led to disbelief of wrhat I had been taught. All my ideals in life were smashed. I talked with college friends, and we spelled out many things together. Very bitter feeling accompanied it.' M. ' Up to 18 I had tried to weigh the matter of religion with the cool reflection of a judge. Now it loomed up large, and some solution seemed imperative. It enlisted my emotions, and the struggle was severe.' It is a tendency which usually develops when one comes in contact with a larger social environment or with intel- lectual conceptions which seem to undermine traditional belief. There is almost always evidence that the ex- ternal conditions interplay with subjective propensities, and not infrequently the doubt seems to arise without being awakened by adequate external circumstances. The most frequent occurrence of storm and stress in which there is an intellectual accompaniment is at the period in which there is a third rise in the curves for religious awakening shown in the last chapter. The rational life which now begins to show itself threatens to destroy the integrity of the self. One naturally craves wholeness, but when the life is driven on toward the point of .view which seems to shatter the old, there naturally arise stress, tension and pain. When there is already a partial organisation of the new selfhood, it is sometimes difficult to adjust it to its environment ; in that event storm and stress expresses itself as friction against surroundings. F. ' I joined church when 14; at 18 I could not believe many of the doctrines of the church. I felt myself a hypo- crite, and often wished that I had not joined.' M. 'From 13 to 16 I dreaded coming in contact with Christian people ; to be compelled to attend family prayer, church and Sunday school was severe punish- ment. I often felt a voice saying " repent," but was too stubborn and would not yield.' Not infrequently the struggle is between the tend- 2 20 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION ency of the new life to express itself, on the one hand, in higher ideational centres, and, on the other hand, to centralise in the reproductive instinct ; consequently, storm and stress is the accompaniment of effort to con- trol passion. The struggle becomes so vital and far- reaching as to involve the whole religious nature, and sometimes takes a definitely religious turn. This is illustrated in the following quotations. As far as records show, this is confined entirely to the males. M. ' At 1 5 I made a desperate effort to control passion. I prayed and cried, but couldn't resist.' M. ' I had terrible struggles (19) to control passion. Often I would as soon have been dead as alive. I was in hell for about two and a half years.' M. ' From 14 to 21 I yielded to secret sin. Each time came remorse and prayer for forgiveness. When 21 I confessed publicly having yielded to sin, and determined to con- fess each time.' A numerical estimate of the part which each of the above items plays is given in Table XX. Storm and Stress shown as- Feeling of Incompleteness and Im- perfection . . . . . Sense of Sin, Remorse, etc. . Friction against Surroundings Asceticism . ... Brooding, Morbid Conscience, etc. Fear of Death or Hell . Connected with Beliefs . Connected with Control of Passion Females. Per Cent. 25 15 9 5 31 7 Av. Age. 14-3 13 iS-6 o 13-6 117 16 o Per Cent. II 13 16 3 6 o 31 Av. Age. 15-4 14 13-8 15-6 o 207 14-3 Table XX. — Showhig the relative pi'ominence of the ways in which storm and stress manifests itself. The per cents, give only the relative value of the various headings at the time when storm and stress reached its highest points in adolescence. That the fear of ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 221 death and hell, for example, does not appear in the column for males, does not mean that they were not troubled with it ; but in no case were such fears central in the adolescent disturbance among the males. The per- centages show that the feelings of youth centre princi- pally around the sense of incompleteness (aspiration after an ideal, striving, longing, etc.), the sense of sin, a morbid sense of right and wrong, friction against surroundings, and anxiety over questions of belief. Asceticism is almost absent. Fears rarely occur ; it was noticed also that fear seldom rose to the surface preceding conversion, however much it may have furnished a strong background for the sense of sin. The averages for the separate items are suggestive. Fears come earliest, as was also true in the study of conversion ; they are doubtless instinctive and racial, and issue forth most naturally during the earlier emo- tional awakening at the very beginning of adolescence. They do not involve a rational content — in fact, are apparently driven out by the advent of the higher con- ceptual life. The sense of sin is next, and comes earlier than the feeling of incompleteness, which latter involves a greater element of will and of insight. Latest are the struggles with doubts. The average ages for nearly all the types are, as one would expect, somewhat later in males than in females. There is the one exception of friction against surroundings, which comes later in females ; this is perhaps explained by the later develop- ment among females of an independent rational life. Taking all the types together, the average age of the beginning of the storm and stress period for females is 13.6 years, and for males 16.5 years. This is nearly the same as the average age of the most rapid physical development of both sexes. It almost exactly coincides with the average age of spontaneous awakening, which is an additional evidence that the two sets of phenomena are closely connected. It is well to keep in mind that the figures given above represent the beginning of storm and stress, and 222 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION not the time when it is at its height. The duration of it varies greatly with different individuals ; the average duration for females is 3.1 years, and for males 5.5 years. This shows that in general storm and stress covers the years during the middle of the adolescent period ; that is to say, during the period of greatest instability. It could not well come during the early pre-pubescent stage of adolescence ; for then the new life has not the check of ideas placed upon it, and so comes to the front as an emotional impulse. Nor is it, likely to come duringthe last stage of adolescence, say, from 18 to 25, when habits have already begun to form, and the func- tional activities of mind and body have become more settled and constant. The fact that storm and stress should continue longer in males than in females is in harmony with most of the other facts we have noticed, and also coincides fairly with the relative duration of the conviction period preceding conversion, to which it closely corresponds. In each case the duration is about half as long for females as for males. The distribution of storm . and stress through the years, giving the years when it began, is seen below. For the purpose of comparing males and females for the same years, the numbers between 8 and 18 — about the first and last years for females — were made out on the scale of 100. Age — .8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Females .2 2 ^ 5 21 15 15 5 II 9 4 Males . . o o o 4 4 12 28 28 12 4 4 The similarity of the series for both sexes is strik- ingly similar to the schematic curves for spontaneous awakenings above. In the case of females the numbers thicken up at the period of 12, 13 and 14, and at 16, with a distinct falling off at 15 — ^just as in the curve for conversion ; there is the further coincidence that the heavier part of both curves is at their earliest rise. The storm and stress curve for males is somewhat similar to that for spontaneous awakenings, except that it comes ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 223 about a year earlier. This correspondence makes the evidence yet more convincing that the two sets of phenomena are fundamentally related. In fact we may go one step farther and see that storm and stress and spontaneous- awakenings and the conviction phenomena preceding conversion are all three results of the same underlying condition. The evidences are numerous and convincing for the close kinship of storm and stress and conviction. The average age of conversions and of the beginning of storm and stress differs in each sex by only a fraction of a year. The age distribution is almost the same, with the exception that the curve for the beginning of storm and stress is somewhat earlier than that for conversions, and that in the case of females the earlier rise in the storm and stress curve which comes at 12, 13, 14, is relatively much heavier than the later one — that is to say, storm and stress comes earlier than conversion. But if we bear in mind that the conviction phenomena precede the age of conversion on the average by as much as a year or more, we shall see that the two sets of pheno- mena really exactly coincide in the frequency of their age distribution. Again, we have just noticed that in both the length of duration was about twice as great in the case of males as of females. There is this difference, that the pre-conversion phenomena seemed to continue only about one-fifth as long as the storm and stress. This is one among the many indications that conversion is a condensed form of adolescent growth. Still more significant is the correspondence in the quality of the feelings in both cases. If we compare Tables IX. and XXL, we see that all of the types of experience which are present in storm and stress are likewise characteristic of the conviction periodi A few comparisons will make the similarity clear. The feeling of incompleteness is the most prominent experi- ence ; this is clearly distinguishable from the sense of sin. Friction against surroundings during storm and stress reduces itself to the tendency to resist conviction, 2 24 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION which is found to be a pronounced type of pre-conver- sion experience. Doubts and questionings in both cases are more characteristics of males, while brooding and morbid conscience apply almost exclusively to females. There are, of course, many differences in the tables, but they are explainable by differences in temperament and by the greater emotional strain that is brought to bear at the time of conversion. We are now in a position to see the relation existing between the three sets of phenomena — conversion, spontaneous awakening, and storm and stress. The fact which underlies them all is the physiological and psychical readjustments incident on the transition from childhood to manhood and womanhood. Spontaneous awakening and storm and stress are perhaps the purest and most characteristic types of adolescent phenomena. Conversion, as we saw, in its most characteristic aspect is identical with such spontaneous awakening as we have found in the so-called 'gradual growth' type. The central facts in adolescent life, namely, spontaneous awakening and storm and stress, have become crystallised into a dogma ; the result is conversion. Theology takes these adolescent tendencies and builds upon them ; it sees that the essential thing in adolescent growth is bring- ing the person out of childhood into the new life of maturity and personal insight. It accordingly brings those means to bear which will intensify the normal tendencies that work in human nature. It shortens up the period of duration of storm and stress. The con- viction phenomena, we have seen, are about one-fifth as long as storm and stress, but they are very much more intense. The bodily accompaniments — loss of sleep and appetite, for example — are much more fre- quent. The essential distinction appears to be that conversion intensifies but shortens the period of storm and stress, by bringing the person to a definite crisis. Whether a person shall experience ' conviction ' or ' storm and stress,' whether the new life shall begin as a ' conversion ' or a 'spontaneous awakening,' depends, ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 225 in part at least, upon certain temperamental and physio- logical causes, which determine the character of one's response to environment. A consideration of the differences between the sexes is of itself convincing of the physiological background of storm and stress. As may be seen in Table XX., these differences are so great, and so much in line with those which we have found heretofore, that their significance is unmistakable. Brooding and morbid sensitiveness belong almost exclusively to women — the ratio between the sexes is that of 3 1 to 6. Fear, one of the deeper instincts, is men- tioned only by women, who likewise are swayed far more by the sense of incompleteness, the struggle after an ideal. Males, on the other hand, work out their ideals from the side of reason, as is seen in their greater anxiety over doubt — apparently as 31 to 8. The same thing is indicated in the greater friction with surround- ings, which is an index of the power to judge and choose. In short, the constructive and rational elements are more pronounced in males. With them the push up through adolescence is more specialised, while women are more given to agonising their way. The contrast grows, doubtless, out of the constitutional unlikenesses between the sexes. These same differences are brought out by Clouston : ' Considering that the very highest mental and moral qualities of all, with the subtle differ- entiation between the male and female mental types, are only fully seen between 18 and 25 in the average human being, we must look still to the apparatus through which all this is brought about in the brain cortex. In its organisation and qualities alone is to be found the explanation of why in the male sex the mental development at that age is in the direction of action, of cognition, of duty, and of the higher imagination, while in the female sex it takes the direction of emotion, of protective instinct, of a craving for admiration and worship, and of the creation of an ideal " hero " to be loved and worshipped in return.' P 226 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION The storm and stress of women often clearly grows out of imperfect physical conditions, and many times there is a strong suggestion that such is the case when not definitely stated. 'Up to the age of 13 I think I felt real enjoyment in worship and in living the Chris- tian life as I then understood it. . . . From 13 until 17 my life was less even. At times I was much troubled with doubts concerning religion, and even grew very morbid. ... I became so morbid at last that I think I took but little interest in life at all. As I look back I should trace the cause in ill-health, as I was quite unwell during most of this time, and under the care of a physician.' ' When I was a young girl I began to have a horror of death, not a fear of it for myself, but a sense of the baffling terror of it, for I had lost the peace and calm of my religious feeling, and I could not believe in immortality, or even in any life within me but the material one. . . . The year after I left school, this despair at the nothingness, which disbelief in a future existence made life seem to me — the horror of it, and also a longing infinitely deep and infinitely, wretchedly hopeless, made life fearful to me. Whether it was this which affected my health, or vice versa, I came on the edge of a nervous breakdown.' The records of the males likewise indicate that morbidity is the direct outcome of ill-health, although not so frequently as do those of the females. ' I have had some periods of great depression, especially during recent years. Sometimes these have arisen from ill-health, sometimes from disappointment and misfor- tune. At times I have prayed myself into a better state of mind, but ordinarily relief has come in the ordinary, natural way — returning health.' ' I became thoroughly morbid on the subject of religion (after 12). I thought in all likelihood I had committed " the unpardonable sin." I was of a self-distrustful temperament, and easily given to forebodings of evil. I was also, I suppose, growing fast and perhaps rather low in physical vitality. My mother was alarmed about my condition, so utterly ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 227 hopeless in spirit, and wisely sent me to Massachusetts on a visit. The idea also came to me somehow that if I was a lost soul it was yet worth while to go on doing my duty just the same. I can see that I had here sub- stantially arrived at the state of being " willing to be damned for the glory of God ! " ' The ill-health and the mental anxiety which so frequently arise simultaneously are doubtless expres- sions of the same basal condition, viz., the rapid growth during early adolescence, which entails great instability in the nervous system. The facts which precede show that adolescent storm and stress is due to the functioning of new powers which have no specific outlet, and are driven to force for them- selves an expression in one way or another. If there is no resistance to the expenditure of the new energy, there results a burst of life, fresh consciousness and appreciation of truth, a personal hold on virtue, joy and the sense of well-being ; but if there is no channel open for its free expression, it wastes itself against un- yielding and undeveloped faculties, and is recognised by its pain accompaniment, distress. Unrest, anxiety, heal of passion, groping after something, brooding and self- condemnation. This stage of adolescence is the period of most rapid physiological readjustments, and conse- quently is characterised by great instability. In the study of the line of growth of the various psychic activities, for example, there are none of the curves which represent degrees of efficiency that have not great fluctuations during adolescence. The period from 13 to 18 is the one likewise, according to the statistics of Gowers, in which epilepsy is most liable to occur. This disease is due to the mental and motor instability of the organism, which prevents the normal inhibition of the energy of the motor areas. The years of its greatest frequency are those likewise in which storm and stress most frequently occurs. The most marked readjustment at this period is that the areas in the cortex especially concerned in rational insight rapidly begin to 228 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION function. These areas have during the period of child- hood lain dormant. ' Looking to the gradual develop- ment of men up to puberty,' says Clouston, 'and the enormous and rather sudden leap that is then taken towards the higher mental life of the adult, we must assume an almost completed apparatus ready to be brought into use just as the centres of respiration are ready for their functions at birth.' ^ If it is borne in mind that the central nervous system is the most deli- cately adjusted part of the human organism, and that it requires a greater supply of blood to restore the metabolic changes which accompany mental activity, and that like- wise this is the period when the greatest strain is made on the circulatory apparatus because of the rapid physio- logical development in all parts of the body, one will appreciate the high degree of improbability that these new brain areas should begin to function in a harmonious manner. The available energy is not sufficient to irrigate these new areas properly in order to stimulate their functional activity to its highest degree of effici- ency. One sees striking evidence of this state of affairs in the fact that physiological disorders and spiritual difficulties are so apt to show themselves simultane- ously. Even under the most wholesome physiological conditions, it is to be wondered at that this readjustment should be made without friction and waste of energy. The child must come out of his little sphere and almost suddenly become the possessor of the spiritual wisdom of his kind. This is tersely stated in the words of Clouston : ' In the upward course of evolution the mental part of man's brain has been the highest point hitherto reached. It has been the goal towards which all else has apparently tended. It is the superstructure, without which all the other results of evolution would have had no meaning. Though it has probably taken hundreds of thousands of years of the evolutionary process to attain this high result, yet we must never forget that it takes only about five-and-twenty years ' Clouston, Neuroses of Development, p. 112. ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 229 and nine months to develop this organic miracle in an individual from the sperm cell and the germ cell up to the grandeur of function, the immeasurable complexity and the inexhaustible capacity that is possessed by the brain of a man of genius. Instead of one brain cortex in a thousand going wrong in this developmental pro- cess, or failing to reach a fair working capacity of function, the wonder is that in almost any case it ever attains this.' ^ The anguish of the person who undergoes storm and stress is analagous to the cry of the child at birth. He exp3riences a readjustment equivalent to a shock, and just as it requires a child usually one or two weeks to adapt himself to the new conditions and begin to grow, it is likewise perfectly natural that the youth should experience some years of turmoil in working out the higher spiritual readjustment. The pain accompani- ment is the natural result of the lack of harmonious functioning in the organism. Incipient ideas begin to make themselves felt, but do not easily fit in with old customs and habits, and the mental life is accordingly strained and torn. If the question should arise why pain results, it is answered by a similar question why, when a foreign sub- stance comes in contact with a physiological organism, there is no rest until the new body has been cast out or assimilated. It is the nature of the mind to work out its environment into a systematic whole. ' One of the greatest pains,' says Bagehot, ' is the pain of a new idea.' The youth is not simply struggling with a single idea as in trying to solve a difficult problem, but the authority and majesty of the world-order is bearing in on him from every side. The wisdom of the race appeals immediately to his inner consciousness. The multiplicity of the demands made upon him leave him in a state of mental congestion. From the standpoint of his inner consciousness they appeal to him as vague, ' Clouston, Neuroses of Development, p. iii. 230 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION indefinable possibilities. Peace can never come until equilibrium is restored ; until he either gives up the struggle, or works over and assimilates the larger world that is crowding in upon him as part of his own personality. If our analysis so far is correct, it is evident that adolescence is one of the most critical periods of develop- ment, a time when the youth should be treated with the utmost delicacy and discretion. The germinating per- sonality is poised between an infinite variety of possi- bilities ; new forces are tending to sweep it in this way and that; whatever culmination of forces and crystallisa- tion of tendencies is undergone at this period will perhaps determine its whole future life. It is the point toward which all the lines of tendency during childhood converge, and interplay with racial forces to determine the direction of the later development. It is the point at which a blunder may prove most fatal, and that likewise in which wisdom and discretion can reap the greatest harvest. Especially in regard to religious training is the situation a delicate one. Religion is concerned with the deeper instincts, it touches life at its most vital point. It is noticeable, for example, that it is in connection with religious feeling that the patho- logical elements of adolescence reach their most malig- nant form. Most of all, the difficulties of one at this critical point should be taken seriously. It should be borne in mind that the forces that are imperative to consciousness are out of the reach of the individual, that there is a new budding personality that is trying to make its way. It is usually filled with self-distrust, and what it needs most of all is to be inspired by con- fidence and wise counsel. It is doubtless the ideal to be striven after that the development during adolescence should be so even and symmetrical that no crisis would be reached, that the capacity for spiritual assimilation should be constantly equal to the demands that are made on consciousness; The attainment of such an ideal is perhaps to be rea,ched ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 231 both from the physiological and the psychic side. From the physiological standpoint, the end will be partly attained when the conditions which are conducive to ill-health and unhygienic conditions during adolescence are counteracted : the avoidance of physical strains which make too great a draft on the nervous system, the observance of the laws of health in the way of whole- some exercise, outdoor games, fresh air, and the like, which stimulate circulation, and fill the brain with good rich red blood — these are means which will without doubt be conducive to spiritual health and beauty. On the psychic side, the dangers are readily appreciated. The fatality of impressing the fact of sin and personal unworthiness, of holding out before the adolescent, who is trying to develop, the horrors of eternal punishment, and of emphasising unduly the ideal of perfection, instead of stimulating the halting and self-distrustful soul towards wholesome activity — these and numerous other indiscretions which are so frequently indulged in need only be seen to be avoided. In view of the significance of the storm and stress phenomena, it is hardly safe to lay it down as an in- violable rule that the ideal is to escape it entirely. Unless the condition is distinctly pathological, it is conceivable that the youth is, in such times, in a most normal and hopeful state. If he is discreetly let alone at the proper time and helped over difficulties when the occasion demands it, if he is honest and earnest in struggling with his difficulties, the strife may simply mean that he is on the border of a new spiritual revelation. Not infrequently the respondents say that the greatest significance for after-development has come out of the struggles of youth. Not infrequently the feeling towards the struggle is like that expressed in Browning's lines — ' Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! Be our joys three-parts pain ! Strive and hold cheap the strain ; Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! ' CHAPTER XVIII ADOLESCENC E — D O U B T Doubt seems to belong to youth, as its natural heritage. More than two-thirds of the persons whose experience we are studying passed through a period sometime, usually during adolescence, when religious authority and theological doctrines were taken up and seriously questioned. To be exact, 53 per cent, of the women and "]<) per cent, of the men have had a pretty distinct period of doubt, which was generally violent and intense. In Dr Burnham's ' Study of Adolescence,' three-fourths of his cases passed through such a period. We shall find that the reason underlying the pre- valence of doubt is a corollary to those we have come upon in the study of Storm and stress. The racial push upward, and the individual adolescent development are both, most of all, a growth into a life of clear conscious- ness. It is a process of emerging from the sea of diffused sensitivity into a life which is characterised by clearness of definition, andwhich is fully organised on the basis of logical order and sequence. During childhood the force of law and order has been largely external ; but now the person must see it for himself — he must be the embodiment of law. In historical development the tendency has been for that which exists to lose sight of the reasons which produced it, and to become worked over into the nature of an authority. Although the authority may be based ultimately upon reasonable principles, the youth cannot accept it unless its excuse for being has worth to his own intellect. He turns logician and 232 ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 233 proves everything, and accepts that only which seems to possess a reason, or for which he can construct one. We shall be led a little way into the nature of the doubt phenomenon by considering the causes which bring it about. By far the most common occasion of <'' doubt, with men especially, is the study of science and 1 philosophy, or the coming into contact with new books | or new educational surroundings which give rise to new ideas. The following instances are representative of a large class : M. ' I studied Darwin and Hume ; this with personal failure led to doubt of the divinity of Christ, the genuineness of the Old Testament, and the belief that spirit is separate from matter.' F. ' When 16 I read the doctrine of evolution and the " The Idea of God." Everything seemed different ; I felt as if I had been living all my life on a little island and now was pushed off into a great ocean. I have been splashing' around and hardly know my bearings yet. I don't see any need for a belief in the resurrection.' Our interpretation of adolescent phenomena has so far usually been a physiological and psychological one ; we now find some evidence of the sociological forces that give rise to adolescent experiences. One of my respondents, a skilled historian, writes : ' I have no doubt, if one could vary experimentally the time of contact with new scientific knowledge, and shield the mind from it for a longer or shorter time, in a great majority of cases this contact would determine the beginning of doubt instead of its being determined by the physio- logical stages. In my own case the beginning of doubt was much later than your physiological epoch, but coincident exactly with my first real contact with modern thought. With a change of historical conditions the whole tone of the biographies would change. The story of doubt, alienation, reconstruction, was not present in early New England history, I think, simply because the conflict between an advancing science and an unpro- gressive church was not known then.' The frequency with which educational influences are given as the 234 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION occasion of doubt, amounting as it does to 73 per cent, of men, shows conclusively that external surround- ings have a vast deal to do with calling out these ex- periences. Still further evidence is found in cases like the above in which doubts come relatively late in life. It is a satisfaction to the writer likewise to be free a moment from the psycho-physiological standpoint, but the escape from it is only apparent and for a moment. It should be admitted once and for all that the forces at work during adolescence which have most significance from the educational point of view, and also from the scientific, are those which arise in the interplay of one life upon another, and which grow out of the contact between the individual and institutional life. This is eminently true if one looks at the matter from the present epoch in racial development. But one finds oneself directly looking behind the sociological causes for the conditions which underlie them. Why do the forces that are at work in the social complex take effect ' during adolescence, and not at some earlier or later period in life ? Looking through the cases, we find that almost all of the doubts begin between 11 and 20. There are a few scattered ones during the twenties, and almost none after 30. The scattered ones that come later than 26 are so few as to tend to establish the law that doubt, like the other irregularities in development that we have been noticing, belongs almost exclusively to youth. If the person is thrown into constantly changing environments during the whole period after adolescence, one would expect, if the external influences were the only occasion for doubt, that there would be throughout life a continual turmoil and upheaval. Since that is not the case, we must look for deeper causes than the sociological and historical ones, and these are to be found again in the psycho-physiological organism. Further evidence of the justice of this point of view is found in the fact that doubts often spring up without any apparent cause. It is more often women than ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 235 men who are not able to trace the origin of them. F. ' As early as 11 or 12 dark thoughts would sweep like a nightmare over me without any cause. I thought it all fable which I had been taught about God and heaven.' F. ' I have had times of doubt when I wondered almost if anything were true and how we could believe it. This would usually come at times when I felt un- usually despondent and nothing went right; it would end as soon as I felt better.' These cases fall at the extreme other end of the series from those we first noticed. They are clearly traceable to physiological causes. The continuance of the series brings us upon those in which the subjective conditions play less and less part, and in which the external influences have greater and greater significance. It is common in both sexes for doubts to work their way quietly from small beginnings. M. 'When 15 I got hold of a book giving the Egyptian origin of the Moses idea, and the Assyrian origin of Genesis, chapter i. I thought it sceptical. I did not suspect at the time that I had lost faith in anything. At 17, at high school, I was growing sceptical, though I did not recognise it at the time. I remember to have suspected the principal of " doing " his piety as an .academic re- quirement. Later, I stood quite outside the Bible.' F. ' After prayer I would repeat slowly, " For Christ's sake," wondering what it meant. When 15 I became disappointed in the Bible in not finding beautiful things there. Revulsion came, and I said to myself, " I don't like the Bible." I did not allow the thought to grow. When 18 my sister said she did not know whether to believe in Christ or not. I sprang up excitedly and took her to task severely. In a year I doubted as much as she.' These instances illustrate the force of the uncon- scious activity of the mind, and show a nature which is already ripe for the growth of doubt. There are several other causes mentioned as leading to doubt, such as calamity, the misconduct of others, 236 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION unanswered prayer and ill-health. The most prominent influences mentioned as occasions of doubt are shown in Table XXI. Occasion of Doubt. Female. Male. Educational Influences .... Natural Growth Calamity (Death, Misfortune, etc. ) . Misconduct of Christians Unanswered Prayer .... Ill-health . . . . . Per Cent. 23 47 9 2 7 12 Per Cent, 73 15 9 3 Table XXI. — Showing the relative prominence of the occasions of religious doubt. Taking both sexes together, educational influences stand highest ; considering the men alone, they are more frequently mentioned than the other causes to- gether. Doubt most often comes in the case of women as a natural growth, and generally bears strong evi- dence that it has its rise in physical disorder. These differences, together with the fact that unanswered prayer and ill - health occasion doubts only among women, are fresh evidences for the differences between , the sexes that have already been observed and need no further discussion. Turning now to the objects of doubt, we find them to be, principally, those things which have become crystallised into creeds and theologies and passed on by tradition. If we consider both sexes together, the things doubted in the order of frequency are: the authority or inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, some attribute of God (as His goodness or justice), His existence, and immortality. This is the order, also, through which the doubts usually progress in the same individual, although the variations from this sequence are numerous, and there are several other objects of doubt not included in this list. The illus- ADOLESCENCE -DOUBT 237 • trations given below are typical of the progress of doubt. It should be observed how usual it is for doubt to pass on from one thing to another. M. 'When 18 certain educational influences led me to doubt the absolute truth of the Bible. It was a gradual process. By 20 I disbelieved in a personal God. The way was thought out step by step. I stopped prayer because it seemed idolatrous. At 21 I stopped Bible reading.' M. ' I intended to enter the ministry. I began the critical study of the Bible under — — . Doubts set in. In practical life also I came to see that what I sought successfully was sought under natural law. The next five or six years was a period of constant transition under study and reflection until the supernatural factor disappeared, and by 28 I should have answered the question of God and immortality in the negative.' F. ' At 1 5 I began to give up the faith of my childhood point by point, as it would not stand the test of reason.. First the belief in miracles went, then the divinity of Christ ; then, at 18, metaphysical studies showed me that I could not prove the existence of a personal God, and left me without a religion.' F. 'When 18 I began to doubt the Bible. I read books inclined to increase my doubt. By 19 I ceased to find any firm ground to stand on in Christ's atonement ; it didn't seem just or right. I wanted to stand before God with no intercession. Soon a personal God gave way to power — vague, un- formed. Sometimes I called it Goodness.' In some of these instances the cumulative effect of doubt is observable ; if one thing is found which will not stand the test of reason, it leads to the rejection of other things with which the first is supposed to be inextricably bound up. The progress of doubt is found also in exactly the opposite direction. The line of approach already con- sidered is the customary one for men, who begin with doubts in regard to specific things, and work their way gradually towards the most abstract and universal conceptions. Women usually take just the opposite 238 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION begins with the or by lumping it all at once. 12. Two years belief. Reason course; with them doubt most often conception of the existence of God, everything together and questioning F. ' I had a religious awakening when later I had bitter struggles for my seemed to undermine my faith on every hand. When praying, the question continually arose, " Where is God, to whom I am praying ? Who is He ? " ' F. ' I joined church at 13. Shortly I began to think about God — where He came from, etc. I kept dwelling on it till I almost doubted His existence.' F. ' I joined church at 12. Since then I have had many doubts and struggles. I have had the feeling that I didn't really believe what I said I did. This has gradually deepened until I don't know (17) what I do believe.' F. 'Doubts began at 20 in connection with the death of a very dear friend. Its form was philosophical agnosticism, beginning in materialism and distrust of 'traditional faith.' Some of the more important details with regard to the things first doubted are seen in Table XXH. It shows only the objects concerning which doubt had its beginning. It will be seen from the table that doubts Doubt began in regard to — Traditional Customs and Beliefs (generally specific) ...... Authority or Inspiration of Bible Divinity of Christ . . . . Existence of God ..... Some Attribute of God (Goodness, Justice, etc.) Everything ...... Immortality ...... Lives of Christians ..... Special Providence ..... Not specified ...... Females. Males. Per Cent. Per Cent. 8 12 25 20 S 17 12 5 14 s 5 8 5 7 2 2 12 22 Table XXII. — Showing the relative prominence of the first objects of doubt. ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 239 usually centre around the conventional theological doctrines, although it is highly probable that the inherent disposition to doubt would find some other object if this were not selected. The frequency with which there is one tremendous doubt of ' everything ' indicates an organic revulsion. In the table the difference between the sexes above noted comes out in statistical form. The first three items, namely, doubt of the authority or inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, or some other traditional custom and belief, all of which are of a specific nature, are much more frequently entertained by men. The existence of God, on the contrary, or some attribute of God — conceptions which are much more central and vital, more abstract and general — or a tendency to ques- tion everything are more often the beginning of doubt among women. Women respond in more organic and indiscriminate ways ; live more in the heart of things than men. A definite circumstance or experience is apt to be interpreted by them in universal terms. The doubts of special providence, which are not mentioned by the men, usually come in connection with personal disappointment or unanswered prayer. The distribution of the ages at the beginning of doubt, made out on a scale of a hundred, for both sexes, gives this series : — Age — II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Female . 12 6 12 14 i5 16 10 10 2 4000000 Male . . o 2 2 12 10 7 7 17 10 10 2 5 7 2 2 5 We find in these figures an important contrast between the age at which doubts set in, and the age of the other adolescent disturbances which we have been studying. In fact, the distribution of the ages in this respect exactly contradicts the other curves. Doubts begin oftenest with females at 15 and 16, which is later than the period of most rapid physical growth. The period of 12 to 13, at which the conversion curve culminated, shows a decided falling off in regard to the 240 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION number of doubts. Among the males there are fewer cases at i6 and 17, which are the ages of the culmina- tion of the conversion curve and also the period of most rapid physical growth, but just before and just after this point there is a thickening up of the number of cases of the beginning of doubt. This contradicts too the curves for both spontaneous awakening and physical growth. That is, doubts for both sexes seem to arise most frequently outside of the nascent periods for physical and spiritual activity. This leads us to the important conclusion that ike beginning of doubt corre- sponds to the period of arrested mental and emotional activity. The individual records tend to bear out the same conclusion, in that the period of doubt is frequently at the time of least religious enthusiasm. One person writes: 'From 11 to 16 I had less religious feeling, although I always prayed, attended church and believed. I began, however, to use my reason more, and sometimes to wonder why things in this world and the next were as the Bible stated.' Whether the doubt is the cause of the apparent spiritual relaxation or the result, would be hard to determine ; — the interesting fact for us is their coincidence. The physical and mental inactivity seems to be an index of the specialisation of development which is taking place at this period, and which centres in the perfection of the rational life. Expressed in physiological terms, it is the period of development of the intellectual centres in the cortex at the expense of other areas. This corresponds to the point of view taken in the last chapter in the discussion of storm and stress. These two aspects of adolescent development have much in common ; in fact, in more than 40 per cent, of the cases in both sexes, storm and stress and doubt both occur either at the same time or successively. That the two phenomena are somewhat different is also suggested by the statistics. Twenty-seven per cent, of women undergo storm and stress without accompanying doubts, while, on the other hand, 37 per cent, of the men experi- ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 241 ence doubts without storm and stress. The two pheno' mena seem to have this in common, that both indicate a rapid development of the intellectual life. There is this difference, however, that storm and stress is a growth of a more confused, general, and organic nature than doubt ; in the latter the development seems to be in the same brain areas, but is of a more specialised kind. The same difference is suggested by the fact that doubts come later. Taking the average of the years when both sets of phenomena begin, we find that doubt occurs later on the average by one and a half years. The doubt period thus comes towards the latter end of adolescence, which is the time, as we have seen, when the intellectual life has greater worth in religious development. This coincides fairly well with the period of the most frequent occurrence of ad'olescent insanity as distin- guished from epilepsy and hysteria, the former being of a distinctly mental nature as distinguished from the latter.^./ Storm and stress and doubt are developments of the same essential nature, but in the former there is more of the emotional quality which contains incipient ideational life in solution, while in doubt the intellectual life has become more definitely crystallised. The facts just noted indicate in a pointed way one of the essential sex differences ; , men are more apt to have doubts without storm and stress, while women are more apt to undergo a ferment of feeling in the absence of doubt. Only 10 per cent, of the men have storm and stress without being plunged into doubt, and exactly the same small percentage of women have the intellectual difficulties without accompanying distress — that is, we may say that adolescence is for women primarily a period of storm and stress, while for men it is in the highest sense a period of doubt. A word should be said in regard to the meaning of doubt as a step in development. We have scarcely outgrown the conception, especially in ecclesiastical circles, that to doubt is sin. There are several instances ^ Clouston, Neuroses, p. 115. Q 242 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION in the records we are studying in which, when honest questionings have occurred during late childhood or youth, they have been hushed by well-meaning parents or teachers. The result is usually a weakling who cannot grapple with the more serious matters of life, or a person in whom the normal currents of life are dammed up only to have them break out more violently at some later time. It should be seen that doubts are a part of a development which, given certain temperaments, is inevitable, and which is natural and normal if the per- sonality is to attain its highest possibilities. If the full significance of this development is appreciated, we shall not be surprised to find that the higher life-purposes develop and intensify simultaneously with the growth of doubt. One person writes : ' It was during my senior year at college that I first began to feel any troublesome doubts as to the things I had been taught ; the influence of study in the natural sciences, and the reading of some of the Huxley controversial articles, were responsible in part for this. However, my religious intensity increased at this time, and it was during this year that a convic- tion began to form in my mind that it was my duty to become a minister.' Doubt is a process of mental clarification ; it is a step in the process of self-mastery ; it is an indication that all the latent powers are begin- ning to be realised. A prominent clergyman of an orthodox church says : ' I have not passed through a series of beliefs ; all my thinking has been an expansion of the fundamental conception, reached while in college, that the death of Christ was a declaration that there never was, and never could be, an obstacle between God and man. I always hail doubt as sure to reveal some unexpected truth. As often as I have tried to dodge doubts I have suffered. My real doubts have always come upon me suddenly and unaccountably, anc^^ have been the precursors of fresh discovery.' Instead of trying to crush doubt, it would be wiser to inspire earnestness and sincerity of purpose in the use of it for the discovery of truth. If doubts are evil, it is ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 243 because there is a wicked nature behind them. Doubt is a means of calling up and utilising the latent possi- bilities of one's nature. If there is a boundless sub- stratum of healthy life on which to draw, and if there is a high degree of earnestness in the desire to know truth in order to use it, doubts are rather to be met and mastered than to be shunned. CHAPTER XIX ADOLESCENCE — ALIENATION More than half of those who doubt, or who experience storm and stress, come a little later to feel themselves quite outside the conventional mould. Leaving, out the women from i6 to 19 inclusive, since many of them may have become reactionary later, we find that 35 per cent, of all the women and 47 per cent, of all the men have passed through a more or less definite period of alienation ; or, we may say, more than one-third of all the persons studied indicate such experiences. The duration of the period of alienation varies all the way from a brief space of time to several years, or, judging by the person's present attitude, it may become a permanent condition. The most frequent length of duration is 5 to 6 years. Alienation is distinguished from storm and stress and doubt in part by the quality of the feelings which attend it ; they are less intense and very different in character from those of the periods we have been studying. A few typical phrases will suggest the difference. The feelings during doubt and storm and stress are described in such phrases as these: 'I had a very bitter feeling.' ' It was a pitiable struggle.' ' I went on groping in darkness.' ' I suffered much in silence.' ' I chafed against restraint' ' It was a pro- longed fit of remorse.' ' I prayed in anguish of spirit,' ' I was filled with mental distress.' ' I wrestled for the salvation of others.' ' My spirit seemed to be crying out in despair and longing.' ' I became morbid, and 244 ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 245 thought I had committed the unpardonable sin.' ' I was in spiritual agony. My health was shaken.' These, on the contrary, represent the feeling during alienation : ' I was gloomy and cynical.' ' People said I was getting cross.' ' I never think of religious sub- jects if I can help it.' ' I came to a state of desperate indifference.' ' On thinking how the world-conscious- ness might be even blinder and less organised than my own, I gave up the search for God, and no longer cared even to die.' ' Church got monotonous and mean- ingless, and I stopped going altogether.' ' I professed to believe nothing.' ' The whole thing seemed hollow mockery. I began to be disgusted with religion, and gradually dropped religious considerations altogether.' These two sets of phrases represent fairly the dis- tinction between this later adolescent period and the earlier one. They indicate that the new personality has a point of view of its own, and is gaining for itself an independent standpoint. It has greater poise and is better able to judge the situation for itself This is most clearly shown in those instances in which there is a clear rejection of convention. If the young life has not yet complete possession of itself, it still has firm enough grounding stubbornly to insist upon itself, as is shown in the tendency to become gloomy and cynical, and to be cross when things do not go right. Alienation is most commonly the natural outgrowth oi doubt ; one reasons, analyses and criticises ; one thing after another is set aside, until finally the whole fabric seems to fall together. The result is a temporary philosophical reconstruction, which seems to stand outside of conventional religion. ' I began questioning everything. Popular beliefs seemed unreasonable. I studied science when 19. Rejected old beliefs, and find it impossible (20) to come back to them.' M. ' I was reared with Calvinistic surroundings. I left home at 18; talked with liberal people ; listened to liberal clergymen. It resulted in my conversion from dogmatic tradition. I came to regard tradition as superstition.' M. 'When 246 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION I began to reason, and read books that taught common sense, I was disturbed. I ended it by becoming con- vinced that what I had been taught was false and wrong.' This process, largely an intellectual one, is far the most common among males. Just as frequently alienation is the natural out- growth of storm and stress ; the new attitude is worked out unconsciously, and comes as a natural growth. One aspect of this development is shown in the follow- ing instance : A woman writes, ' I joined the church when 17. I went to Communion once, but my feeling was only one of horror ; it seemed heathenish. I never went to church after that or read the Bible, but prayed much. I believed in holiness, but was horrified at what I saw around me. I still believe (24) that that branch of the church which I joined and its doctrines are death to the religious life.' In addition to the native reactionary tendencies which lie back of such an experience, theie has been unconsciously a growth of the individual point of view which makes a personal grasp of truth seem to transcend traditional beliefs. In the following instance, likewise, one sees how the growth in the same direction precedes the consciousness of it. M. ' From 18 to 24 I gave up all the traditional beliefs one by one. I left off Bible reading and attending church. Spiritual growth preceded the doubt ; I always felt beneath me a strong foundation of truth ; it was giving up a weaker for a stronger incentive to virtue.' It cannot be too much .emphasised that the occasion of the reactionary tendencies in many instances is traceable to ill-health, just as we found in storm and stress. This is true especially of women. F. ' All my life has been a struggle with doubt, disease and nervous- ness, which affected my religious nature. I had nervous dyspepsia, was anxious, and thought only of myself I had a period of asceticism and reaction, with no out- ward cause.' F. 'With a highly sensitive organism, life has been a continual struggle with hereditary ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 247 tendencies. At times I believe in no future and no God. Such feelings come when my vitality is weak. Within the last three years, with physical culture, I am growing stronger physically and mentally, and life has more meaning.' Frequently the direct cause leading to one's aloof- ness is found in environmental conditions. The individual and his surroundings come into antagonism. There is a clash. In the inability of the person to harmonise himself with his environment, his integrity is threatened and is preserved only by his pitting himself against his surroundings. F. ' One day, while calling at his house, a minister suddenly asked me if I was a Christian. I had a terrible dread of being talked to about religion, and blurted out, " No ! " I was so worried I could not sleep for a long time after that. I was more careless about doing right. I could listen coolly to prayer and see baptism without the least bit of feeling. I only felt far away from it all.' F. ' I suffered one bereave- ment after another, and finally (21) bitterness filled my heart toward the avenging God whom I believed in. I tried sincerely to believe there wasn't a God, as this seemed less wicked than hating Him. For several years I had no religion at all.' M. ' I heard the first indecent story I ever listened to told by an officer in the church. It was a great shock. It led me to doubt his sincerity, and that of everyone, the worth of re- ligion, the inspiration of the Bible, and the existence of God. I read books against the Bible, talked with irreligious men, studied other religions, read of crimes committed in the name of''Christ.' Alienation seems often to be due to the physio- logical necessity of gaining relaxation from the strain of storm and stress and doubt. It is one of the best established laws of the nervous system that it has periods of exhaustion if exercised continuously in one direction, and can only recuperate by having a period of rest. This will become more clear in the discussion of the fluctuations which follow conversion. The point 248 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of interest in this connection is that the same ebb and flow of spiritual interest occurs whether conversion is experienced or not, given only a temperament which works itself up to a lively pitch in the earlier adolescent stage. This is clearly shown in the following instances : F. ' I had a desire to lead a Christian life. Time after time, until i6, I tried to experience what others said they did. I felt myself a hypocrite. After trying over and over I fell into a state of absolute indifference. I could sit through the most serious revival and make fun. I thought professing Christians hypocrites.' F. ' After joining church I found that my profession of religion hadn't altered my conduct and I doubted that to which I stood pledged. The well-meant efforts of a friend radically different from myself in temperament made bad matters worse. I decided desperately that I didn't care.' M. ' I didn't believe in the doctrines of the church. I disbelieved in resurrection of physical bodies, a literal hell, an angry God, etc. I professed to believe nothing, though I did believe in God and His goodness.' Closely connected with these are the cases in which the person holds aloof in order to see things in their true perspective. M. 'For a year or two (i8 to 20) I stayed away from church entirely, in order not to be influenced unduly by persons.' This shades off into the truth-seeking spirit which is willing to stand or fall by personal conviction. M. ' I began studying Plato's philosophy. I rejected miracles. I accepted conditions and took the consequences.' The most central principle underlying the whole alienation phenomenon is found, doubtless, in the necessity to preserve in one way or another the wholeness of the individual life when it is threatened with dissolution. In the presence of conflicting forces within and with- out, this one thing cannot be surrendered, namely, the integrity of one's own personality ; to surrender this would be to do violence to one of the most central and deep-seated instincts. In studying the cases together it appears that people avail themselves of all the means ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 249 possible for accomplishing this end. Those who are of an active and vigorous temperament, if they are to preserve their own identity in the midst of the conflict between the personal and social will, can only maintain their equilibrium by expending their energy in some positive way ; the result is a vigorous defence of the personal point of view as against that of society. A passive. temperament, on the other hand, may find its salvation by sinking into a state of indifference, by letting the old problems take care of themselves and give place to other interests. Half-way between these two extremes is the temperament which becomes irascible and gloomy and cynical. It stands outside of the conventional forms and lets society go its own way. It either utters a wail at the friction it feels between itself and the social complex, or remains doggedly outside and growls at the current of life as it is passing. It frequently happens that one's wholeness is preserved and the pain of the friction is allayed by a playful attitude towards the beliefs and actions of other people. A frfend of the writer who is a lecturer, but who feels keenly beforehand the ordeal of facing an audience, be- comes not only jocular but positively foolish, as he himself admits, in order to divert his attention from the task before him. It is noticeable that the richest humour is that which has beneath it an undertone of pathos. Per- haps, if rightly understood, the cause underlying an experience like the following would be found essentially to consist in a personality trying to make sure of itself. One of the respondents writes : ' When 16 I experienced a period of scepticism, when infidelity seemed fascinating and romantic to me, and there was a pleasure in shock- ing my friends by avowing such sentiments. It was due, I think, to the natural unrest of the girl developing into womanhood.' Perhaps such attitudes should not be taken too seriously. This leads to the consideration of another cause underlying the reactionary tendencies. The occasion of them seems often to be the pleasure that comes from 2SO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION the sense of freedom. The doubter is inventive and constructive, and delights in feeling that he is organising his own world and is responsible to no one. F. ' I didn't think it necessary (24 to 29) for a healthy person in the prime of life to believe in a personal God.' F. ' By the help of mystical writers, the " Gospel of Divine Humanity" and Emerson, I passed out of orthodox Christianity into the free atmosphere of thought' M. ' I perceived that evolution conflicted with current orthodox beliefs and held to it more strongly on that account.' These attitudes seem likewise to rest back on one of the deeper instincts, the pleasure in free activity, and another closely allied to it, the delight in personal freedom and independence. In understanding the phenomena of alienation it should be noted that Jthey occur usually towards the latter end of the adolescent period ; it is the time when the intellectual life is coming into prominence. The storms and difficulties of earlier adolescence are being settled, and settled from the standpoint of the intellect. As we have noticed, epilepsy and hysteria each indicate an unsettled condition of the motor centres in the brain at this period ; these largely disappear and give place to adolescent insanity itself, which is a mental develop- ment. Religious doubt, storm and stress, conversions and spontaneous awakenings rarely occur during this later period. During doubt and storm and stress the person is wrestling helplessly with forces beyond his control, which tend to distract and tear his spirit. It is largely a struggle between the powers that be and the force of his own individual will. During the period of alienation there is less feeling of any kind. There is greater poise. The person has either dropped the struggle or decided it for the time in favour of his own will. The attitude is that of indifference or of cynicism and antagonism. CHAPTER XX ADOLESCENCE — THE BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF If we stop to glance at the various directions in which the religion of youth tends to develop, adolescence will appear at best to be a very complex affair. We have seen that if we take a cross-section of the composite life of a large number of people at any year during adolescence, it has great diversity of colouring ; there seem to be forces interplaying, opposing and conspiring within any one year. If we attempt to follow these forces through successive years, there is distinct con- tinuity, although at the same time great variety in the lines of development. We have found that almost simultaneously there come in different individuals, and occasionally overlapping in the same individual, the distinct breaks in character which we call conversion, the sudden bursts of life which we have termed spon- taneous awakenings, fresh enthusiasms and heightened activity in religious work, the emotional strain of storm and stress, and, mingled in among these, periods of carelessness and indifference. These latter coincide, like- wise, with the periods of most rapid physical develop- ment, and come at about the same time as the great physiological transformation which centres in the awak- ening of the reproductive life. If, for example, we take the average age of all these events (it should be borne in mind that averages in these cases show only the most general tendencies, and even blur the finer distinctions), they differ only by a fraction of a year. Later by a little comes the doubt phenomenon, and still later, 251 252 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION towards the end of adolescence, the tendency towards ahenation from conventions. We have found indica- tions all the way along of essential kinships existing in the character of these phenomena aside from their chronological relationships. The question for us now is to inquire if we can find a simple point of reference for all these phenomena which will bring them into system and order and relative simplicity. What is the central thing in the whole adolescent development, if there is one, from which all these lines of growth diverge ? If we follow up the directions indicated by the facts in the preceding chapters, they seem to lead us toward this fundamental point of view : back of the whole adoles- cent development, and central in it, is the birth of a new and larger spiritual consciousness. The little child begins life without a consciousness of his selfhood ; he looks out upon the world as purely external ; his hands and his feet he gazes at as objects and not as part of him- self. It is two or three years before he uses the pronoun ' I,' and perhaps nearly as long before he is conscious of his selfhood. Before this time, it is true, this fact is implicitly present in his consciousness, as is sho-Ain in the instinct of self-preservation which shows itself almost from the beginning, but it has not yet arisen into clearness. During the early years of childhood the self consists largely in the physiological mechanism and the complex of physiological sensations which come through the senses. Somewhat of the outer life has already been taken up into the self, but the world is largely looked upon still as' external and objective. The essential thing in children's religion, we found, was the tendency to look upon God and heaven as something above themselves, and the body of religious doctrine as something external and expressed in ecclesiastical cus- toms and doctrines. But there comes a time in the normal process of development, when the essence of all these things is worked over as itself belonging to the subjective life. 'God is a Spirit': 'The Kingdom of Heaven is ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 253 within you,' Christ was constantly saying. ' He that hath ears to hear let him hear.' These are the attempts to transform life from a purely external point of view, and lead one to find the central truths of religion within oneself, just as the hands and feet were discovered by the child to belong to itself. This birth of a selfhood, the awakening of life to a self-conscious appreciation of things, is the central fact underlying the variety of adolescent phenomena. For the sake of clearness let us represent this fact by a diagram as shown in Figure 14. \ V Figure 14. — Diagram representing adolescent aivaiening. The self of childhood we shall call ' i ' in («), As the child's higher psychic life begins to have worth in the complex of impressions that are interpreted as making up its own personality, it seems to be brought in contact with a larger world outside its former self, represented by ' I.' Either gradually or very suddenly, as the case may be, these new elements of which it has an inkling flock together and break in as a part of the real self instead of something outside of consciousness. The condition now is shown in [b) where ' I ' is the real self, and looks back at ' i ' as something which it has out- grown. It is the world of ideas that now comes in and 254 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION takes possession of the self; and the inner appreciation of their worth to consciousness constitutes spiritual insight. Expressed in physiological terms, the adoles- cent development consists in the commencement of the functioning of the higher intellectual centres in the brain. Instead of a self of sense, ' i ' as it existed in childhood, we have now a world of ideas and spiritual perceptions, ' I ' with which the personality is identified. The test during the present chapter, if our point of view is the true one, will constantly be as to whether or not it explains the facts ; if they fall in harmoniously and without straining, as the natural expression of this central condition, then we shall keep it as a true ex- planation. It will be readily observed that this point of view is another way of expressing that which we found to underlie the phenomenon of conversion. A transformation of character consists in the sudden func- tioning of the higher brain areas, so that ' I ' becomes the real personality as distinguished from ' i ' ; the old life is blotted out or swallowed up in the new. In the spontaneous awakenings among the persons who have never experienced conversion, but belong to the group we are now studying, we are able to detect exactly the same type of experience, although it is generally not so far-reaching and momentous in its significance. For the picture of this, we need only refer to the accounts of spontaneous awakenings given in Chapter XV. Some of the experiences are so pointed, however, in the direction of our present discussion, that we should note a typical instance. One person, a minister, who has never professed conversion, writes : ' With me, coming to myself came through suddenly seeing my whole figure reflected in the mirror in a shop window, when I was about i6 years old. The impres- sion was tremendous. The thought came to me, " I am I, I have a life of my own to live." For some time after, the sense of personal responsibility for life and conduct weighed so heavily on my boyish mind that I identified myself with the church of Christ' The essential dis- ADOLESCENCE-BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 255 tinction between this instance and one of sudden con- version is that the new revelation, although it is extremely vital, is not sufficient to constitute a new self, but is interpreted as a deepening and intensification of the old personality. A common tendency observable in the records of the respondents , especially in those of younger persons who are still m the adolescent stage — a tendency which seems to show what is going on beneath the surface — is X\\^ sense of estrangement. It is a very frequent experi- ence for persons to feel themselves shut off from others ; to think their individual revelations peculiar to them- selves; to look upon customs and conventions as external to their own experiences ; to feel that they have a newer and greater revelation than other people have. One young man writes : ' I have a striking and peculiar experience, and one you don't see often ' ; but an outsider, on reading his record in connection with many others, is able to find in it nothing either striking or unusual. When 22 years of age Kingsley wrote to his mother : ' I am not like common men ; I am neither cleverer nor wiser nor better than the multitude, but utterly different from them in heart and mind.' A girl writes : ' I am different from other people ; I have never been a blind follower in thought or deed.' A woman of middle age says in regard to her girlhood experience : 'When 18 I joined the church; in my earnestness I found myself almost alone.' In these instances there is a consciousness of the fresh life within, and everything is judged in terms of it ; it becomes the centre to which all else is referred, hence the sense of aloofness and estrangement from other people. This often increases to the extent of leading the person to look with scorn on conventional religion, and to regard it as inferior to his own. M. ' Forms seemed mere show and a fetter to individuality (15 to 23).' M. 'I have not turned against Christianity (25), but have outgrown it. I am glad it exists for a certain class of people who can be reached by it.' M., 26. 2s6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION • When I go to church I am repelled by the bigotry of what falsely calls itself the only religion.' M. ' I wouldn't go to Sunday school (14 to 19), because they wanted me to believe things I knew were not so.' M. ' I did not like traditional theology ; I felt there was something better.' F. ' I thought Christians slow, stiff and conceited.' F. ' I am satisfied I feel more serene in church than most Christians.' F. ' I felt the form of joining church artificial (13 to 15). I could not talk to mother because she could not understand me.' F., 17. ' Almost every minister has disgusted me. No one has talked a religion'that satisfied me, so I have my own.' Many of the subjects show the reform and missionary spirit while in this condition, and an earnest desire to bring the rest of the world up to their own point of view. In fact, the missionary spirit, which, as Dr Lancaster found in his study of adolescence, is a com- mon feature of youth, seems to gain its impetus in part from the inability to objectify the new insight and to harmonise it with the point of view of other people. The apparent bigotry on the part of one who is newly awakened is the result, doubtless, of regarding other people as being at the same time of development as is represented by the old self that has been abandoned. The new life which bursts forth, the new energy which surges up towards the higher brain areas, is manifested in the heightened activity and increased enthusiasm which are so frequent in youth. Most of the adolescence phenomena centre in the disparity which exists between ' i ' and ' I ' in Figure 14— that is, between the old self and its new possibilities. Youth is the time of the awakening of ideals, a time when there is an intimation of a larger life ahead, a fuller life still on the outside. One person says, ' I scarcely dared to think. I was living far below my ideals.' Another, ' I made many good resolutions, which would last only a few days.' Still another, ' I had the strongest desire for a better life ; I would try, and then sink back into the same old attitude. I was not satisfied with myself, and ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 257 had the greatest regret that I was not better.' These are typical of a very large number ; to quote more would be repetition of a type we saw in the ' sense of incompleteness,' which was the background of the storm and stress period. It is a common thing for the Bible, or church, or religious ceremonials, or customs to stand for the embodiment of the ideal which the person wishes to reach. M. ' I fell in with wayward companions (13 to 15). I stopped Sunday school, and avoided the society of good people. I was upbraided by conscience ; did often wish earnestly to be better.' M. ' I had a period of doubt. I tried to live a strictly moral life, but was harassed by numerous evil, invisible agencies.' M. ' I became painfully aware (13 et seq.) of the hiatus between the natural life of a boy and the sup- posed ideal of a Christian. I spent hours each week on my knees.' F. ' I felt that others had something which I lacked (15 to 17). I, only, of an orthodox race, had no honest desire for what the rest felt' F. ' All through young girlhood I felt my sister's affectionate nature to be in contrast with my selfishness and shallow- ness. We were inseparable companions, but she was isolated because she was on a higher plane.' The direct result of this lack of harmony between the two selves is that the power of insight and apprecia- tion grows in advance of the power of activity. One sees what to do, but lacks the ability to execute it. Heightened activity during adolescence is rare as compared with the other phenomena. There is a breach between the motor areas in the brain and the ideational centres. One is thrown back helplessly, and the chasm between knowing and doing becomes greater instead of less. There are several sets of causes distinctly traceable in the records which tend to increase the discord between present attainment and the ideals which open up before one. The numerous impulses that arise during youth, if expressed in some positive way, are not always ex- pressed rightly. Like the individual variations which R 258 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION come in biological evolution, some are in the line of progress and persist, while others are abnormal and con- stitute evil. With certain natures, adolescence is a time of acting and acting wrongly, of running against a wall and suffering, of sinning and repenting, which results finally in remorse and lack of self-confidence. F. ' Everything I did (shortly before i6) seemed to be wrong. I would make fresh resolves not to do it again.' F. ' I alternately sinned through weakness and morbidly brooded over my wicked nature.' M. ' When i6 I broke my standards of right. 1 felt remorse. I struggled with new ideas, did wrong, and was in despair.' This is evidently one element in the differentiation of ideals : the person acts wrongly, and in consequence is thrown back upon himself and realises the futility of his action. This gives chance for ideals to grow, but at the same time leaves one helpless to attain them. Another element which doubtless sets the ideal in advance of present attainment is physical incapacity to act. The person quoted above, who felt the hiatus be- tween the natural life of a boy and the supposed ideal of a Christian, says further : ' I was growing fast, and my physical vitality was low. Mother was alarmed at my perfectly hopeless condition.' M. ' I felt I was far behind my ideals. I fell into morbid hopelessness.' F. ' At 12 I became serious, and it increased with years. When 1 6 and 17 I was very melancholy and pensive. I thought about the great responsibility of life. I had a desire to act, but was sure of my stupidity and in- ability. I suffered much in silence.' We have seen above that spontaneity on the spiritual side seems to- culminate just before and just after the greatest incre- ments in physical growth. Another element is clearly the duplicity or multi- plicity of demands made on the will. Each impulse to act is inhibited by some other or others. The person is left helpless before the greatness and indistinctness of the revelations which come to him. M. ' I passed through a period of scepticism in which I questioned ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 259 even the fundamental morals. The experience fostered my natural indecision before action.' M. ' From i S to 20 I struggled with the ideal of being wholly conse- crated to the will of God. Fear of being called to do missionary work stood in the way.' F. ' I thought I ought to undertake grandfather's salvation. For months I was in a pitiable state between fear of him and for him. I prayed for him, but never dared to speak to him.' F. ' To talk to others about their salvation I con- sidered the test of religion. I would write to my cousin and then be afraid to look him in the face.' We have seen that another cause of the heightened insight is contact with broader minds, the study of science and philosophy, and the like. Whatever be the line of approach, the disparity between insight and the power to act is a prominent characteristic of youth. The first factor in it all, certainly, is the increased complexity of life which comes through the germina- tion of new powers and the capacity for new functions. The immediate sequel to that has already been de- scribed. The next factor to be emphasised here is the seeing, but not doing ; feeling, but not responding by some adequate activity ; having an impulse in a certain direction, but seeing it deadened by a lack of vital energy, or through the paralysis of the will under opposing motives. Dr Lukens 1 finds a period in the 8th and 9th grades in our schools corresponding to the years of about 11 to 15, when there is no improvement in the ability to draw, but a heightened appreciation of art. Unlike the period of 7 to 8, when the child draws everything with little appreciation of its meaning, the youth has the beginning of the art instinct without the power to execute it. This is the same thing that we find in the religious sphere. Dim, indefinable, irre- sistible impulses press in on one. They are too large and hazy to find definite outlet. The person is com- ^ Dr Herman T. Lukens, in an unpublished article, to which he has had the kindness to allow a reference here. The article is a continuation of his researches on. Children's Drawings, Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV. 2 6o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION paratively helpless in the breach between theory and practice, between insight and the ability to act, between appreciation and the power of execution. Now, keeping in mind the fact of a budding spiritual personality, and the chasm between the ideal before it and its present imperfection, how does this fact explain the other phenomena of adolescence. In understanding the variety of experiences we have to keep before us two facts which have worth in the differentiation of the types, namely, temperamental conditions and environ- mental forces. Some persons are apparently so happily constituted, and have such wholesome surroundings, that the awaken- ing of new life comes as quietly as the growth of a plant, and it is impossible to mark off periods in their growtn ; but such cases are the exception rather than the rule. Among those whose development is marked off by stages, of common occurrence are those in which the life-forces have not appealed to clear consciousness, those in which the power of self-analysis has fallen behind the unconscious processes of growth. In such cases the realis- ation of the new life comes suddenly as a great new revelation. There is only a slight inhibition between the energy latent in the lower brain areas and its dis- charge through the higher; and the overflow into the latter is sufficient to bring a vivid reporj; to conscious- ness. If the newly-awakened brain arefs are readily connected again with the motor areas, increased impulse in the direction of religious conduct and heightened activity is the result. Storm and stress appears to be the outcome of that condition in which there is not an easy co-ordination of the higher and lower brain areas. The higher areas which are lying ready to function, and which do function sufficiently to arouse crude ideals, do not work themselves into harmonious -relationships with the rest of the nervous system. Frequently it appears that the different ideational centres are beginning to function separately, and there is friction between them to determine which ideals shall be the organising centres ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER .SELF 261 of consciousness. Life is not a unity. The strain and friction between its contending parts leaves one in the helpless and wretched condition with which we have become familiar. One of the purest types is that of Tolstoi. He says, ' I could do nothing but think, think of the horrible condition in which I found myself. Un- answerable questions never ceased pressing to one dark spot, like lines converging to one point.' The doubt phenomena are of the same sort, except that they are less organic, and in them the battle is fought out on the plane of reason as distinguished from that of the emotions. The ideals which present themselves to clear consciousness are weighed and balanced against old customs. It depends, perhaps, on both temperament and the strength of surroundings, that pull One in the direction of the new life, or bind him to the old, which way the decision shall finally fall. If it is in favour of the new life, and the connection is not readily appreci- ated between this and the old, we have alienation, a phenomenon whose significance now appears clear. As the new life rises to present itself, it rarely finds its own spiritual perspective coincident with the con- ventional and traditional one. Then follow friction, clash, storm and stress and doubt. The individual feels his own worth and clings to it, as a choice becomes necessary between the personal and social points of view. A little less than half allow the scales to tip towards custom and begin the process of adjustment, as we shall see ; a- little more than half rebel and hold their own individual point of view. How long one remains in this attitude is probably a matter of tempera- ment. A few remain there, and never recover. Others are partially constructive. But the greater number find in the relaxation and pain of doubt an occasion for getting their bearings, and make it the antecedent of a definite reconstruction. The extreme difificulty of bridging the chasm, and the length of time that the youth is left struggling to- ward a higher plane of life, seem to belong to the diffi- 262 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION culty of learning new things. In the experiments of Dr Bryan ^ on learning the telegraphic language, he found that each of the subjects learned to receive messages rapidly during the first few weeks of practice. Just before the proficiency required for receiving main line messages was reached, there was, without eAception, a plateau in the curve of improvement extending through several weeks — a long period when ■" the student can feel no improvement, and when objective tests show little or none.' Then follows a sudden rise in the curve. ' Sud- denly, within a few days, the change comes, and the senseless clatter becomes intelligible speech.' This brings fresh and well-established evidence to what we were trying to picture in conversion. It helps to brii^ many of the facts in that study and those in this into harmony. The child is born into a social organism, which, with or without his choice, has set certain re- ligious standards that he must attain if he is to take his place as an organic part of it. His adolescent awaken- ing is really a birth into appreciation of the demands which the social whole makes on him. The storm and stress and doubt periods, and the period of ' conviction ' preceding conversion, appear to be each a time of in- efficient effort to apperceive and realise that which is the common experience of mature minds. After some weeks or months in the conversion cases, and some months or years in the gradual-growth cases, of striving, building and developing, the new life becomes an im- mediate possession and a real experience. Some points as to the significance of the adolescent disturbances seem clear from the foregoing considera- tions. In the first place, the apparent futility of the striving during youth should not be understood to have no value in the final attainment of a satisfactory experi- ence ; just as it would be impossible for a telegrapher to cross the line representing the degree of proficiency ^ ' Studies in the Pliysiology and Psychology of the Telegraphic Lan- guage,' by Wm. Lowe Bryan, Ph.D., and Mr Noble Ilarter, Psychological Review, January 1897. Adolescence— BIRTH of a larger self 263 required for main-line work without trying for it day- after day, so it is improbable that one will ever break through the limits that enclose the body of world wisdom and enjoy from the inside that which has come as the result of racial experience, without struggling and even agonising to enter into it. A vital consideration is whether young people should be allowed to undergo the stress and turmoil that so frequently occur, or whether they should be steered clear of the real or supposed difficulties. When we grasp the full significance of adolescence we shall see that all the instability and anxiety and uncertainty, and even the extreme pain, is one of nature's ways of producing a full-fledged, self-poised human being with a high degree of self-reliance and spiritual insight. Because the cur- rents of life are not running evenly and smoothly, we cannot safely infer that there is not growth. In fact, when we take into account the great frequency of doubt and storm and stress among supposedly normal human beings ; when we observe that many of the persons who have risen to eminence, and that many of those who have become the leading exponents of religious truth have undergone great spiritual conflicts in youth ; when we keep in mind the fact that this is the time for the awakening of that clear consciousness which is the distinguishing characteristic between the most highly- developed human being and the animal, it seems highly probable that the extreme experiences of adolescence, with all their unevenness and turmoil, are the result racially of the survival of the fittest, in which the fittest is he who wrestles in youth with the inextricable mesh of impulses which spring up, and often pauses in despair while the deeper forces of his nature are working them- selves into clearness and harmony. If this is true, we should rather welcome such experiences in young people than free them from all their spiritual difficulties. In fact, one of the extreme unkindnesses grows out of the indiscretion of people who try to solve for them the ' problems ' which arise in the minds of young people. 2 54 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION One's whole life must be worked into a harmony, and this can best be done by allowing the natural and whole- some impulses which are stirring in one's life to produce a unity after their own kind. The insight which comes to a human being must be his own revelation. Dr Lancaster found that 90 per cent, of the large number of young people whom he studied loved solitude ; this fondness of seclusion is probably one of the wholesome instincts that nature has implanted in human nature. Mohammed went to his cave to ' solve the divine mystery' ; Christ went to the wilderness. If we are generous in our interpretation of natural tendencies, we shall doubtless believe that the ' aliena- tion ' phenomena, in which people so frequently condemn and hold themselves aloof from the customs and social institutions which are the embodiment of racial wisdom, are in accordance with nature's way of enabling a human being to stand out free from the rest, and work out clearly his or her own point of view. That which is worked out independently as an individual insight is often brought back to society as a newly-discovered treasure. Thus is life enriched ; it is a process of differentiation which ultimately increases the complexity and fineness of the social fabric. It cannot be too much emphasised, on the other hand, that youth is at the point of development at which it is beset on every side by liabilities of abnormal and pathological extremes. It is the point at which not only geniuses begin to develop, but also criminals ; not only persons of greatest spiritual insight, but likewise those of the extremest sensuality. It is at this period that religious difficulties most frequently develop into insanity. It is the point at which possibilities open up in every direction. If too much let alone, the crystal- lisation which shall set the pattern for the whole after- life may be some excess or fatality quite abnormal. The little tottering child learns best by experience, but may be destroyed in the process of learning. It is of the gravest importance to look toward the means of ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 265 steering clear of the developmental tendencies when they are liable to become too extreme. The cure for helplessness that comes with storm and stress is often found in inducing wholesome activity. ' Faith without works is dead.' Let us call to mind the fact that storm and stress and doubt are experienced some time during youth by something like 70 per cent, of all the persons studied. On the other hand, height- ened activity, which is characterised not only by an interest in religious matters, but by engaging in actual religious work, was experienced by only about 22 per cent, of all the persons. This is doubtless very much out of proportion. Many persons have found the solu- tion of their difficulties by actually setting about doing things. F. ' I had doubts as to the value of prayer. I desired a certain thing very much, and prayed for it, simply ignoring my doubts. It wasn't answered, but I have not been troubled since with doubts.' M. ' Passed through a period of doubt. My cure was activity in doing what good I could.' M. ' Have doubted every- thing but a mother's love, and the existence of my poor self. My doubts have somehow been resolved in the stress of trying to live uprightly. I could not carry doubts far while trying to be a good son, student, husband, father and citizen.' The proper balance during youth will doubtless be found in evening up the percentages quoted above by bridging over to a certain degree the chasm between insight and the power of execution — by carrying bits of spiritual wisdom over into action. An idea is strengthened if it can find expression. The multitude of ideas which try to break into consciousness will be best judged as to their fitness to persist by embodying them in deeds, and testing them as to whether they will fit into life as mainsprings of conduct. The test of the worth of an idea is the fact of whether or not it is fit to live by. When put into execution, ideas are brought out into clearness, and the extreme confusion that is behind storm and stress is relieved. 266 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION In the complex of sensations which underlie the development of self-consciousness from childhood up, there are doubtless none which' have so great worth as the muscular sensations, not even excluding visual imagery, in terms of which so much of our knowledge is symbolised. Now, although development of the new spiritual selfhood is largely in the sphere of ideas, we shall never reach the point when these will not have to be embodied in sensuous symbols ; and the ideas at the highest point of development will be more in terms of muscular activity than in any other sense. We ap- preciate what we have done or are able to do. The one who enjoys a game most is the person who has actually engaged in the sport, and who plays the game over again as a spectator. A vocalist listening to a concert by another vocalist finds the muscles of the larynx fatigued after leaving the concert hall, and, in conse- quence of the muscular response, has really lived into the concert more vitally than one who has not experi- enced such a motor effort. It is deeds that make life real. It is actions that help most of all to unravel the inextricable skein of impulses. It is actually setting about doing things which drives the blood through the nervous system, and helps it to carry out its normal activities. ' If any man shall do his will he shall know of the doctrine.' But now we are liable to go too far in this interpre- tation. We must preserve the balance. One cannot lay it down as a general rule that the wise treatment of the youth is to induce activity. Our records show that often one of the surest means to precipitate the difficulty is to act when there is not sufficient wisdom and insight behind it to insure that the action be wisely directed. One person, who had been harassed with fears for some time, says further : ' I joined the church when 15, and felt better. I con- fessed myself a Christian, but I began to awaken to the fact that I was not a Christian. For three or four years I sought salvation ; I felt helpless and convicted ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 267 of sin. While talking with the pastor one day the whole matter cleared up. It was the simple acceptance of Christ' Two or three more instances will emphasise the point. M. ' I lost sympathy with the doctrines of the church. Afterwards I tried to come back to it, but failed. My only satisfaction was a real reconciliation to the doctrines of Christ.' F. ' I joined church when 12. I was not so anxious as before, but had the feeling that I did not believe what I said I did.' F. ' I saw that my friends were living far better and happier lives than I ; and I felt I was living below my ideals. When 17 I joined church. Almost immediately a reaction set in, and I regretted the step I had taken. I felt it had not altered my conduct, and I doubted that to which I stood pledged.' One of the most ungainly sights, and one of the most hopeless, in view of religious development, is that of one who hastens about in a fever of excitement, sup- posing it to be for ' the glory of God,' or for the good of the world. The determination of the proper course as regards action or inaction during adolescence seems to be an individual matter, and depends on conditions too complex to be stated as a simple principle. This much seems clear, however, that there should be the proper mixture of conduct and insight ; that the activity should be constantly backed up by a higher degree of wisdom. CHAPTER XXI ADOLESCENCE — SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING During early youth the whole nature is in a state of change and transformation. The readjustment seems to be even greater on the spiritual side than on the physical. During this time there is comparatively little display of feelings which could be termed distinctly religious ; there is more of ferment than contentment and evenness of feeling, more of doubt than faith. The person is filled with unrest and uncertainty and self- analysis ; or, on the other hand, with wilful activity and the disposition to take the control of the universe into his or her hands. We set out next to inquire what has taken place among the life-forces at this time. Is there relatively a blank, or are there other lines of interest and activity which persist during doubt and storm and stress ? We are learning to expect that if one's energy is not expending itself in one direction, it is probably active in another. In physical development the different organs do not grow harmoniously, but have their particular nascent periods of development. The energy which makes for growth is focused now in one and now in another. Between the growth on the physical side and on the spiritual we have repeatedly noticed in this study evidences of a compensation that is going on ; periods of slow spiritual advance are frequently coincident with those of very rapid development of some other kind. It is noticeable among professional athletes that exces- 268 SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 269 sive training in the muscular system is apt to be accom- panied by lack of proficiency in mental acumen. In regard to the use of the psychic functions, specialisation in one given direction limits one in others. A man is not liable to be at the same time a poet and a scientist, and to succeed in both. Mr Curtis,^ in a study of the supply and expenditure of nervous energy, has made it appear highly plausible that the amount of nervous energy available for use at any given time is fairly con- stant in the same individual. If it is used up in one way there is none left for other activities. The opposite of this principle is equally true, that if one finds a deficiency at any given period, unless there is a lesion or some definite abnormality in growth, one may expect to find an increase of activity in some other part of the system. This is as true in regard to spiritual development as in the distinctly physiological character- istics. One cannot serve God and mammon. Neither can one be at the same time a skilled theologian and an exhorter. If the forces in one's nature which make for richness are specialised in any one way, they determine the peculiarity and aptitude of the person. If one's stock of energy which is normally expended in the cultivation of spiritual things is drafted off for some other purpose, the result is directly noticeable. This compensating tendency is well illustrated in the follow- ing instance. One of the respondents writes : ' The evenness of growth has been disturbed twice, during two periods of pregnancy, when my health was very poor. Being deprived of church work, and unable to do any active Christian work, it was hard to keep from getting despondent. During these periods I felt I never would get back in the same relations that I had had. I think it was simply my health and inactivity, as I feel as much interest now as before these periods.' We are able to see clearly that there are elements which continue and are indeed often heightened during storm and stress and doubt. The lines of interest which ^ Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VI., p. 64. 2 70 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION come to the front, or which persist when everything else seems to be torn away, are the moral, intellectual, and KSthetical instincts. (a) The ethical instinct usually persists or is heightened during adolescence. Often it is the only thing which remains firm in the midst of chaos. One woman writes : ' I had a lack of religious feeling at that time, but prided myself on my humility. I determined to devote my , life to God's service. I went into Christian work, but it seemed more practical than spiritual.' The practicality of the motive behind the activity and its lack of spirituality are a good index of the ethical impulse that gave it sanction. That the instinct is a moral one which impels to action is strongly evidenced in the fact that a morbid conscience was the central thing in storm and stress. There is often a worrying over trifles, a tendency to magnify little omissions or little slips in con- duct into the proportion of great sins. Religious feelings have vanished, but conscience is left in full possession of the field, and it exercises its power with unchecked sway. One woman says : ' Between the years of lo and 19 if I overstepped in one thing I felt awfully wicked. One night I had a dream of Christ beckoning me to follow Him ; I took it to mean I was not doing as I should, and was even stricter after that' Some other typical instances are the following : M. ' While changing my beliefs, religion was more a matter of conduct. I went through a rational stage at 17 or 18, when the sense of duty only was left.' M. ' I passed out from my old views and gradually I dropped religious considera- tions altogether between 22 and 26. I led an active life. My religious nature was entirely dormant, but there was an increase of moral and intellectual soundness.' M. 'Between the years of 17 and 20 I came to regard myself as an agnostic. I prided myself on being more moral than those about me who professed religion.' M. ' I was in spiritual agony ; my spirit was smitten with such a darkness that only one of all the early faiths remained. It must be right to do right! There SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 271 are a few instances in which the moral nature is shattered and falls with the rest. F. ' From 14 to 19 I could not bear to be talked to about religion. Heaven seemed further off than ever. I was more careless about doing right.' M. ' Began to doubt theological beliefs. Went to college. Overthrew ideals of child- hood (18-19). Had a period of moral license.' M. ' Had a period of scepticism. Questioned everything. It lowered my ideals unconsciously, or doubled them . with lower ones, while the higher ones persisted.' The cases are relatively rare in which the moral instinct declines. (b) The intellectual interest is often the all-absorbing one. This fact has already been anticipated in the con- sideration of the prominence of doubt. Not only is the rational power a vigorous tool for the criticism of religious ideals, but frequently its use becomes an end in itself, and the interest in it seems to approach a kind of aesthetic of logic. F. 'When 15, intellectual question- ings arose. I became intensely imbued with Sweden- borgianism. It was the cold philosophy of his teaching that satisfied my mental needs.' F. ' During the year (19) I read books inclined to increase doubt. Would go out under the stars to think and reason. Contrasted ministers of the Gospel with scientists, and thought the latter more likely to find truth. At present (23) have no settled religious belief I accept no belief I cannot understand.' F. ' I said, as to something above me, I will never believe one inch beyond what my coldest thinking tells me is most probable.' M. ' For a year or more after 14 the whole matter of religion seemed eclipsed by the desire for intellectual growth.' M. ' Have never been able to supplement my most general con- clusions by the mysterious strength of simple faith. Have a keen desire (31) to have a satisfactory rational basis for would-be beliefs.' M. (15-19). 'Cared more about my doubts than the solution of them.' The fascination that centres around the use of intellectual powers furnishes a good indication of the line of de- 272 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION velopment which is going on during youth. Its incentive is the pleasure that comes from the exercise of a newly- acquired function. Dr Burnham observes in his study of adolescence that many philosophers have begun their systems during adolescent doubt.^ {c) The (Esthetic interest sometimes either continues or is heightened during doubt and storm and stress. F. ' From 24 to 29 I did not believe in religion at all. I wept over the pathetic in literature; had strong emotions on hearing "The Messiah" or Easter music at some great church.' F. ' I had no religious training. Later I lost the calm and peace of childhood ; 15 to 22 had despair at the idea of going out into nothingness. I did not believe in God, immortality or prayer. During this time I had a vague imagination of something beautiful and beneficent in nature. My enjoyment was largely sensuous ; flowers, perfumes, music, deep, soft colours, awakened more emotion than any thought of the holiness of God.' F. ' All that religion means to me (17) is kindness and goodness. In music, soulful pieces move me strongly. Chopin's " Funeral March " seems to grow into me. In nature, our glorious sunsets, the ocean in its vastness, and all scenery on a grand scale, make me believe there must be some divine power.' M. ' I came to stand quite outside religion generally (15 to 22). Natural phenomena were everything to me — health, inspiration and consolation.' M. ' During my doubt period (before and after 20), the love of nature constituted all my happiness. The vast and sublime affected me almost to madness.' A rough quantitative estimate of these factors is given in Table XXIII. The number of cases in which doubt or storm and stress was present is the basis of the percentages. The numbers show the percentage of those in which the supplementary elements in question were clearly present. The absolute value of the num- bers is heightened here because most of such statements as are quoted above did not come from a direct question, ^ Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I., p. 182. SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 273 but were given voluntarily in the general record of ex- periences. Females. Males. Per Cent, of Cases. Per Cent, of Cases. •s 3 4) a (3 .£1 s a d ■a Ethical Instinct . 18 IS 33 .S7 6 43 Intellectual Interest 6 IS 21 24 8 32 Esthetic Interest 7 8 15 14 2 16 Any one of the above without duplicating . . . 55 63 Table XXIII. — Showing the actual prominence of certain elements which take the place of religious feeling during doubt and storm and stress. Tlie ethical factor stands out in the greatest pro- minence, persisting during doubt and storm and stress in at least 33 per cent, of the women and 43 per cent, of the men. The intellectual elei^ent is less fre- quently mentioned, but arises into distinct importance. It is remarkable that considerably rnore than half the respondents mention some one of the three elements as constituting part of the bone and sinew of life during adolescent struggle. The question arises. What is the significance of the fact that these three lines of development come out so pronouncedly during adolescence, when the^xjistinctly religious feelings are relatively absent ? It means either that these are the most fundamental factors in th&. re- ligious life — so central and vital that when all the rest disappears they remain as the skeleton and framework of N,^ the religious life ; or, on the other hand, that they are factors somewhat distinct from those which make up religion, and have now begun to rise into prominence, while the rehgious instincts are held for the time in S 2 74 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION abeyance. In an earlier interpretation of these facts, the first alternative was chosen, and in view of the fact that the moral impulses rose into greater prominence than any other element, it was said that the ' ethical instinct seems to be the great tap-root from which the religious nature is nourished.' ^ It is to be noticed that in childhood religion the moral impulse shows itself very early. Also in the beginning of adolescence the first things to appear when the individual life dawns are those things which centre about conscience. And now we have seen that the last thing to go when one is torn by doubt and perplexity is the moral nature. This seems to furnish strong reason for the former interpretation. But one is met by these considerations: — The moral nature is often shattered during adolescence. During adolescent insanity, as Clouston points out, the moral instincts are the first to disappear. Pleasure in the exercise of the intellectual nature comes to the front, and reason can hardly be regarded as one of the central roots of religion. It seems a fair inter- pretation to say that these three lines of development, in the direction of morals and reason and cesthetics, are relatively late products in racial growth, and in adol- escence have just begun vitally to function. The moral nature, as we saw in the chapter on childhood religion, is already present in early years ; but it exists in germ rather than as a vital element in con- sciousness. In childhood, we are coming to see, all the possibilities of later development exist and show themselves already in little ways. Reason, for example, has its nascent period during youth ; but it rises to assert itself in the questioning age of early childhood. The mind at 3 or 4 years of age is bristling with scrappy bits of reason ; nevertheless, they have not the same value to consciousness as the reason which shows itself later. The elements of morals and reason both assert their presence in these early •■ ' Religious Growth,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IX., p. lOI. SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 275 years ; but in adolescence the youth knows them in a living way as part of himself. He grasps their meaning with the absolute certainty of possession ; they blossom out in his consciousness as a part of himself; he feels that it is ' I ' who have a conscience, and ' I ' who reason. These are elements which are closely bound up with religion, and will later be taken up into it as some of its most immediate constituents. The prominence of the ethical instinct leads us to believe that from this time, when it has its real birth, it will be one of the central factors in fully developed religion. An experienced teacher of young people reports that if she asks her pupils to select those they like best among a number- of poems — some representing beauty of form and imagery, others tending to awaken some vast con- ception, and still others which have a strong moral undertone — they almost invariably choose the last. They are attracted first by the moral aspect of poetry. These three lines of development, then, are those toward which racial growth has tended ; they are the latest fruits of evolution, the culmination of the lines of racial development. We are in a position now to see why the moral nature falls first in mental disease, why it vanishes like a mist when mania sets in. It is probably because the moral instinct is so highly organised and so finely poised. It is for the same reason that the intellectual life, which is one of the highest products of developing consciousness, is most susceptible to insanity in this very period, when it should come forward and develop into the highest per- fection. During their period of greatest instability, both elements are most susceptible to hopeless disintegration. In view of this fact we see why during adolescence the moral nature should sometimes be weakened during storm and stress and doubt, although it is usually brought out into greater clearness. It appears to be in some instances the result of failure to attain the possi- bilities before one when this developmental crisis is 276 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION reached. There are many instances likewise on the in- tellectual side in which very great precocity in childhood is followed by failure to realise the possibilities of the development of rational nature in adolescence. The weakness of the moral nature may be the result of ex- cessive development and be closely allied to the usual forms of adolescent mania. During these crises in adolescence, life is in a certain sense laid bare so that one can look into it and see the elements which compose it and their interplay upon each other. In these three factors we have been con- sidering one sees avenues along which it is possible to approach the lives of young people when religious faith is low. They represent demands which must be rnet in the educational treatment of the youth, and which should be appealed to in order to help him safely through a most critical and crucial period. CHAPTER XXII ADULT LIFE — THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION A TURNING-POINT in development almost as distinct in character as that at the beginning of adolescence is one a few years later which marks its close. It consists in a reorganisation, readjustment and reconstruction of religious experience. Adolescence is a period of turmoil, of spiritual unrest, of instability, and often of negation. The close of adolescence is characterised as the be- ginning of religion as seen from within. The person has worked out a standpoint of his own, he interprets life for himself; he has gained a positive faith, although it does not of necessity agree with the conventional types. This reconstruction consists either in working out one's belief and faith independently of that of other people, accepting one's own point of view and beginning to live it and to be happy in it, or in coming back to the old forms and dogmas of childhood and putting new life into them. It is more frequently a mixture of both of these tendencies. Rarely does a person remain un- mindful after the period of reconstruction of the usual theological tenets and ecclesiastical customs ; and, on the other hand, we have no instances of those who drop back into the childhood method through sheer ex- haustion from the struggles of youth — none, in fact, of whom it would be fair to say that they have simply put the new wine into old bottles. The person has acquired a spiritual grasp, a new insight, and that becomes the basis for apperceiving the essential elements in old 277 2 78 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION doctrines, generally with keen discrimination between their essential and non-essential aspects. The nature of the process will be best understood by quoting a few typical instances. The following represent those who construct a faith largely outside and inde- pendent of the commonly accepted forms : F. ' I cannot come back to my old beliefs ; but I believe that I worship (20) as truly as God desires.' F. ' I am influenced in my own conduct by far higher considerations and nobler ideas of duty (26) than I ever was while I held evan- gelical beliefs.' M. 'The struggle is over (21), but my beliefs do not now agree with all the popular ones.' Below are various instances of the way in which one comes to see the truth involved in former beliefs held when religion was looked upon as something external, but which have been worked over as a part of one's inner life. M., 30. ' The dark period has nearly passed for me. My beliefs are largely what they formerly were, and the reconstruction was perhaps not entirely independent of the influence of the old beliefs ; but it does not rest on them as a foundation.' M. ' I have had a slow process of construction and extreme simplification of belief My few religious tenets seem ■ perfectly in harmony with natural law and rational ideas. I have not accepted again anything once com- pletely discarded. I have simple beliefs, yet strong on a few fundamental points.' M., 30. ' I find, what has proved itself more and more true all the time, that the positive beliefs that I have gradually worked out in the school of experience in freedom of thought are one in essence with the religious beliefs of my childhood, that had been taught in the first place in terms so simple that they seemed to have nothing profound about them at all.' M., 30. ' I have' come back to a firm belief in God as revealed by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, but I can- not return to the traditional beliefs concerning inspira- tion, atonement, the person of Christ, election, etc' F., 30. ' The terms God, freedom, love and immortality have more meaning to me now than ever before, not so ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 279 theoretical as a few years ago, but nearer and more real ' (from 24 to 29 she was 'without a religion'). F., 54. ' I have often thought that if I could come to the Bible as to other books it would be more helpful. The last year or two it has been so ; the illumination which evolution has thrown on some passages will eventually make it a new book for me.' F. ' From 17 to 24 I was constantly awakening to larger meanings of truths here- tofore supposed narrow and personal.' M., 30. ' I have returned to something like the faith of youth, but it is much more spiritualised and liberal in its views.' M. ' Gradually (16 to 20) I lost all my religion but the sense of duty. Then gradually I felt that I hadn't lost much — it all came back to me transfigured. Since the readjustment my religious feelings have tended to become stronger, and I have put new meanings into old forms.' The age at which the reconstruction occurs is generally between 20 and 30 ; of those before and after those ages there are — of females, one each at 18, 33 and 37, and of males, one each at 50 and 55. The age was not always given ; but it was evident that the reconstruction gener- ally fell somewhere between the years specified. The years of greatest frequency for both men and women were 24 and 25. The average age, omitting scattered ones which come very late, is 24 for women and 24.5 years for men. There is great unanimity in all of the cases quoted above, and these are fairly representative of the entire class. To what extent, let us inquire, is this a char- acteristic experience. Omitting girls between 16 and 20, who are not to be supposed to have yet completed the reconstruction, or even to have had a fair chance at doubt and storm and stress, we find 42 per cent, of the females and 39 per cent, of the males who have had experiences similar to those quoted. Allowing for im- perfect records and for difficulty of self-analysis, it is evident that they are very common. But we should look at the matter from another 28o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION standpoint. It is evident that in arriving at a fair estimate of the tendency toward reconstruction one should include only such as have at some time in their growth found themselves partially outside of religion. That is, we should exclude those whose growth has been so gradual as not to be marked off by definite stages. Looking through the records we find that 41 per cent, of the women and 38 per cent, of the men belong to this latter class. If we exclude from these the 16 per cent, of the women who are between the ages of 16 and 20, we have for both sexes about one- third whose development has been gradual. That is, if these are typical subjects, we may say that about two-thirds of both sexes tend at some time in their growth either to rebel against conventional religion or to find it alien to their personal interests. Of this number there are only 13 per cent, of women and 4 per cent, of men who are still in a negative attitude. Besides this there are 11 per cent, of the women and 18 per cent, of the men who profess not to be satisfied with their present point of view, but who are trying to work on to a more satisfactory experience, and who show withal a definite tendency to make their beliefs harmonise with their earlier ones or with those of other people. Those whose reconstruction is not complete show in some respects in a more definite way than the others the natural trend of growth. In them one sees life in the process of formation ; they are like the nebulous systems which show how worlds are made. We may safely lay it down as a law of growth that it is almost a universal tendency for the perplexity, uncertainty and negation of adolescence to be followed by a period of reconstruction, in which religious truth is apper- ceived and takes shape as an immediate individual pos- session. There is further evidence that there is a critical period at the end of adolescence, usually in the twenties, found in the records of those whose growth has been even during adolescence. Many of these had a definite awakening or a period of more rapid and intense de- ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 281 velopment at this time sufficient to mark it off as a turning point. The following quotations will illustrate. F. ' When 20 I heard impersonate David Garrick. I experienced a swelling and overflowing of life, and joy so keen it was part pain. That high plane of insight has never been lost' F. 'When 23 I had a struggle with selfishness and came out victorious.' M. ' When 21 I became more serious. Growth from that time was less influenced by environment' M. 'At that time (25) came new insight into the meaning of life.' Putting experiences of this kind with those of reconstruction of faith already noticed, it swells the per cent, to 53 for each sex of those who have a pretty distinct turning- point somewhere in the 20's. The average age given above is changed by only a little with the addition of these instances. In order to see if this was a separate period or only a continuation of the ' spontaneous awakenings,' the numbers of both occurring at the different years were plotted together. They leave almost a blank at 19 and 20, and rise again to the greatest frequency at 25. The break between the phenomena which mark the beginning of adolescence and those which seem to determine its close seem to set the latter off as belong- ing to a different period. The experiences are also of quite a different character, as seen in the quotations already given. The period of reconstruction which marks the end of adolescence is a time when the ragged ends of experience are pulled together into a unity, when that which has been objective has now become a subjective possession, when that which has been seen from the outside is now lived from within. The fact that this is the natural drift of religious growth is. brought out in a new way in Table XXIV., in which the age-groups are kept separate. It is the result of an attempt to classify all the cases, in order to bring out whether older persons are more liable to have passed through a period of reconstruction than the younger ones. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION i6-ig Per Cent, of Cases. 1. Faith Recon- structed after Doubt and Ne- gation 2. In Process of Reconstruction 3. Still Negative . 4. Gradual Growth, without Definite Reconstruction . Unclassified . 1-7 3-3 16. 20-23 (24) Per Cent. of Cases. F. M. 2-5 3-3 2.7 1-3 24-29 (25) Per Cent. of Cases F. M. 4.1 2-5 10.7 4- 2.7 6.7 Per Cent, of Cases. F. M. 10.8 1-3 9-3 40 and over. Per Cent. of Cases. F. M. 9.2 13-3 1-3 6.7 10.7 Sum. Per Cent, of Cases. F. M. 28.3 38.7 10.8 18.6 12.5 41.7 38-7 6.8 Table XXIV. — Showing some facts in regard to the trend of religious experience. The cases fall into four groups : first, those who had got more or less completely outside of religious interests through doubt and reaction, and had finally constructed a belief and faith satisfactory to themselves ; secondly, those who had gained some solid footing and were still making stringent efforts to believe; thirdly, those who were still negative and reactionary ; lastly, those who had never felt themselves removed from and antagon- istic to religious interests, even during doubt and storm and stress. The separation into these groups was of course somewhat arbitrary. That it was not wholly so was shown in the fact that, as in other points of difficult judgment, my wife and I made them inde- pendently, and found very few doubtful cases. These last are placed in the unclassified list in the table. The ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 283 value of the table is largely in showing the distribution of the different groups among the various years. It is made out entirely in percentages of the whole number of cases. As we saw in Table XVIII., the number of cases which fall in the various year-divisions is about the same, with the exception of women between 16 and 19 inclusive ; so the percentages as given represent fairly, with the exception of the first column, the relative values for the different vertical columns, i.e., for the different year-groups. Looking now at the year-groups, we see from class one that the numbers increase with years of those who have had a period of definite reconstruction. In con- trast with that, the number of those who are still re- actionary, or are still in the process of reconstruction, decreases with age. That is, it appears that very few who have stood outside of religious interest at any time in their growth have not readjusted their faith by, say, the age of 30. That class four — those whose growth is distinctly gradual — should be greater in earlier years, can hardly mean other than that they would have been good subjects for doubt and reaction later. The nai've and simple way in which most of the girls from 16 to 20 gave their experiences, and described them in the phraseology of the prayer-book or catechism, is added evidence. If the table is accurate, and the facts on which it is based are typical, we may say that the common trend of religious growth is from childhood faith, through doubt, reaction and estrangement, into a positive hold on religion, through an individual reconstruction of belief and faith. It was a surprise to find the period of reconstruction so clearly marked, and it raises a question somewhat difficult of interpretation. The meaning of it from the psychological standpoint seems clear enough, but to grasp the biological significance of it, to find the reason why the period should be so clearly marked and come out at about the time it does, is not so easy. It may be wide of the mark, but it seems possible that this turning- 2 84 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION point may be a cumulation from racial experience and represent the time when the individual must leave his tutelage, and take his place as a positive unity in society, as husband, father or citizen. Just as childhood is the time when one should drink in the best of that which human beings have worked out and stored up in habits and customs, and as in youth these must be taken up and criticised and questioned preparatory to apperceiving them, so maturity is the period when one must carry back into life and utilise that which has been learned. There are some bits of evidence in the records that seem to show that such an interpretation is the fair one. One woman writes: 'From i8 to 24 my religious experience fluctuated because of pleasure-seek- ing and worldliness, which troubled my conscience. But after this I became more settled by entering on the duties incumbent on a wife and mother, and my religious life was deepened as my responsibility increased.' Psychologically, this period marks off the end of the adolescent ferment. The unsettled and stilted quality of both body and mind is outgrown, and new insight is worked over into habit and becomes ingrained as a part of the new personality ; the bigotry and wilfulness of adolescence become toned down ; the unrest and hope- less striving become realised. If the experiments in learning telegraphy, referred to above, hint at a funda- mental law of growth involved in religious experience, this culmination of adolescence is the time when the curve of proficiency suddenly rises and crosses the line which represents the standard of the religious life of the social whole. A most instructive insight into the relationship be- tween adolescence and maturity is reflected in the means by which the transition is made from the one to the other. We shall take up in turn some of the ways of approach to the positive religious life. At no point of develop- ment is the transition more clearly marked. A very common way of escape from storm and stress and doubt is through some sort of activity. One woman ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 285 writes : ' I had severe struggles through selfishness and jealousy. Family troubles came upon me in full force, so that I could bear my sorrow only through serving Christ and working for Him. I taught a class in Sunday school and sang in the choir ; I set up ideals and made great effort to live up to them. My real change in character began at this time.' It is through setting about to do things that the pent-up forces in one's nature are relieved. The difficulty during adolescence is that the tendency toward one sort of motor discharge is inhibited by some other equally strong tendency which offsets it. As one grows towards maturity, and the impulses to activity increase in number, the soul, whose highest joy is in self-expression, becomes self- imprisoned. The life is an aching centre of possibilities. One comes to feel that the only means of escape is to do something, whether or not the specific thing to be done is at all recognised. The way out is that pictur- esquely described in Carlyle's chapter on the ' Everlast- ing Yea': 'Produce! produce! Were it but the piti- fulest infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it in God's name. 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee ; out with it then. Up ! up ! " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy whole might." " Work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work.'" It more frequently happens that the activity is of a special than of a general sort, and comes from following up some one line of insight which separates itself out from the mesh of possibilities. We saw in the last chapter that there are three elements which persist during adolescence in the absence of the distinctly reli- gious feelings, namely, the ethical interest, the intel- lectual and the aesthetic. It is interesting to note that each of these is a great highway along which persons pass out from adolescence into mature life. The way out of adolescence is perhaps most fre- quently found by following up some thread of intellectual insight. F. ' I knew that an acorn would not come up 286 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION a beanstalk, and thought that to plant in that belief is as much religion as anything. I came to believe that " somehow good will be the final goal of ill." One cannot live without deep religious feelings ; they are a legitimate part of one's nature.' F. ' I got hold of the conception of law, and settled the problem of the world in favour of determinism. This brought repose and rest. I gradually ceased to pray for anything external, but only for spiritual perfection. My whole after life has been a development from this point of view.' M. ' Re- action practically ceased by my becoming convinced that, allowing the Bible equal credit with other sacred writings, it was, as a whole, true ; that the religion of Christ was the most potent factor in lifting humanity to a higher plane ; that the church was the only organised means of advancing religion ; and by seeing fruits of religion in the lives of others.' M. ' I learned to dis- tinguish between the lives of so-called Christians and that of Christ ; between imperfections due to Christianity and those due to human weakness. I went one day to a favourite grove by the river, summed up all my doubts and fears, and Christ was mine again.' Others found some organising principle in science or philosophy. The typical solution seems to be to sift a large truth which is part error and to discriminate out the vital element in it, as in the last one above and in this : M. 'By i8 I was a sceptic, by 20 an unbeliever. When 21 I came under the instruction of a man who taught me the differ- ence between essentials and non-essentials. He taught me that if I had the mind of Christ within me, and had the spiritual truth of the Bible, it made no difference about Jonah and the whale. He first really led me to Christ.' Another way which is just as clearly marked is that of following up the thread of duty. F. ' One day while musing despairingly, something stirred within me, and I asked myself, " Can I not rise once more, conquer my faults and live up to my own idea of right and good, even though there be no life after death ? I may yet ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 287 deserve my own respect here and now. If there be a God, He must approve me." I was led back straight to religion through the moral instincts.' F. (Severe conflict 16 to 30.) ' When 30 I heard some sermons on religion as character building. They led me to be the Christian I am now.' M. 'My morals and theology both went at the same time. I came later to see the distinction between them and to have as my only code utilitarian ethics.' M. ' I have outgrown the church. I believe in a high standard of morals. Honesty, morality and integrity are my only watchwords, and they are my prayers.' This is one of the most clearly marked even if it is not one of the most frequent ways of approach to maturity. It is so clearly described by Mr Brooke in his life of Robertson that his words deserve quoting in this connection. ' It is an awful moment when the soul begins to find that the props on which it has rested are many of them wrong. ... I know but one way in which a man can come forth from this agony scatheless. It is by holding fast to those things which are certain still. In the darkest hour through which the human soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful this at least is ■ certain ; if there be no God and no future state, even then it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be true than false, better to be brave than a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of his soul, has dared to hold fast to those landmarks. I appeal to the recollec- tion of any man who has passed through that agony and has sat on that rock at last with a faith and hope and trust no longer traditional, but his own.' Finding the vital element in religion from the side of (Esthetics is the line along which one often works one's way. F. ' The reading of Wordsworth and Keats, and Kant's Critique of Practical Judgment, combined with lectures on Wordsworth and Keats, opened up a new world to me. It showed me that religion was not identical with any church. I felt God to be the great 288 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION artist of all the outdoor world of which I was so fond. The change of " the good into the beautiful " became the acceptance of God's law.' A good example is found in the deepened insight of one whose growth was gradual. M. ' (When 22) I drew the picture of a little aspen tree. As I drew, the beautiful lines insisted on being drawn. I saw they composed themselves by finer laws than any known to man. At last the tree was there, and all I had thought about trees, nowhere. " He hath made everything beautiful in His time" became thenceforward the interpretation of the bond between the human mind and all visible things.' The presence of the aesthetic element in reconstruction is also hinted under the next heading. In the last three paragraphs we see, very naturally, that the way out into positive religion is along those lines which we found to persist during doubt and storm and stress. An appreciatiott of the strength and beauty of personal life is often the means by which one comes again to a solid footing. A woman who had passed through a period of despair from 19 to 33 writes : ' The chief factors in the change were change of work and love for a little child. By slow degrees came back warmth for other human beings. I became possessed, I have no know- ledge how, of a little faith.' M. ' I never felt the emotion of love in any form until 26. Then a little child 8 years old became fond of me because I told her fairy tales. Her words were the first expression of tender feeling I ever received that I did not suspect. I could understand God's love better after that.' F. (Doubt and storm and stress up to 22.) ' I heard a grandly benignant man preach on the joy and peace of the Christian life. I felt a hope that it might come to me, and began to pray vaguely but earnestly for faith and a hold on truth. Gradually a sense of the wonderful vitality of the personality of Jesus came to me. His life seemed to be in all things— in civilisation, beauty, purity, art and life. Slowly I felt in myself this other Life and Force and Divinity.' ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 2^9 One of the most common ways of entering on posi- tive religious life is through surrender of self, and coming to live in more general or universal life. F. ' I experienced complete resignation and threw aside selfish anxiety about a future life. I got rid of the prison of self and took my stand in the objective universe.' F. ' I came to a point where to go on and live without divine aid was impossible. In a time of sore temptation help came. The simple acceptance of it changed every- thing-. After a year or more of sore distress of mind, religious feeling came back again.' M. ' My struggle was with independence. I find it easier now since I have submitted completely. My growth has been from purely intellectual religion to acceptance of the Spirit's aid.' M. ' Heretofore (up to 25) religion had been a personal matter. The final solution of my difficulty was in recognising the social side of morality and religion. That was a brand-new revelation to me.' M. ' The difference, after starting for a higher life, was that God was recognised while before He was not.' The correspondence between these phenomena of self-surrender and those described under conversion is readily appreciated. They doubtless have the same psychological foundation, although those we are now considering are usually more mature. The conviction period in these instances has been prolonged by several years, and when the solution of the difficulties is finally reached, the person sets out more unfalteringly toward the higher life and is not so frequently overtaken by the perplexities of youth as are those who were converted at some earlier year. The above are ways by which the person passes from external perception to inward appreciation of the worth of religion. In reading them through, one feels that the central thing underlying them all in one way or another is coming to see religion from within. The instances are numerous in which the persons themselves described the transition as being of this nature. This is shown in the following quotations : F., 29. ' I no longer think of God as a being sitting on a T igo THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION throne in space, but as a force boundless and infinite which pervades all nature as I pervade my own body.' F. ' Having passed through various periods of doubt, I find myself without any especial creed, and too busy to speculate. My faith in God has never wavered, but it takes rather the form of faith in myself as His child, and in the result of my own best effort' F. ' I came to see religion as a personal matter and not limited to creeds.' F. ' I gradually came to realise (26) that vital religion is the breath of life to all earnest souls, and is not confined to churches or formulas.' F. ' From my sister I learned (27) that religion is not something tacked on to life. From external observance I passed to subjective life and oneness with Spirit' M. ' I came to see that to know God is not a matter of the intellect, but that to live is to know Him.' M. ' I came to feel (24) that all dogmatic teaching was a matter of chance and habit ; that the life of religion depended on the force of faith, not the terms of it.' The interpretation of the reconstruction period in physiological terms seems to be that the personality is now identical with the higher brain areas. If we accept Hughlings-Jackson's theory, it is coming to live on the highest level of the nervous system ; or, in the Flechsig terminology, the self has become wholly organised in the association-centres of the cortex. There has been a complete co-ordination between the higher brain areas and the lower. Life is reduced to a harmony, with the synthesis on the side of the higher spiritual centres of consciousness. The various ex- periences easily harmonise with this point of view. For example, the fact that there is so often a reversion to the earlier childhood conceptions shows that the lower levels of the nervous system have been taken up and organised into the higher. It may be either that from fatigue the person has fallen back into the old brain tracks as the most convenient centre of organisation ; or, on the other hand, that the old conceptions and the new point of view are found to be in essence equivalent ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 291 In the cases we are studying there are no instances of an apparent retrogression, a reversion into the identifica- tion of the self with the old channels of nervous dis- charge, although an instance or two of that kind has been found since the present study was organised. A pointed instance of this is that of a girl who, through religious struggles, experienced nervous prostration, and as a matter of self-defence gave up the struggle and fell back into extreme orthodoxy. She herself was con- scious that she did not dare to continue the struggle. Those cases in which there is an entire reorganisation of life along independent lines, in this point of view, are those in which the synthesis of life is so complete from the newly formed associational centres that kinship with the old is lost sight of Either the earlier conceptions were not vital or are not enough one in nature with the new to be assimilated. An interesting type of this is illustrated in the following instance in which the ideas continue to be the same as in the doubt period, but the attitude has changed from a negative into a positive one, and bends toward sympathetic co-operation. A man about 30 writes : ' I have changed very little in my religious ideas since the first period of scepticism, except that I am less critical. I sometimes feel that I would like to be in some church, because the church is the greatest organised instrumentality for good that exists ; but when I imagine myself taking an active part in religious exercises such as prayer, I feel that it would be a sort of mockery.' That the trend of experience should be most com- monly towards a broader interpretation of childhood con- ceptions is in line with what we know of the functioning of the nervous system. It is the earlier impressions that are made in the nervous structure which are most apt to persist and through repetition become most indelible. They are consequently the ones that function either consciously or unconsciously in most vigorous ways throughout life. They will always remain the great channels for the expenditure of nervous energy unless 292 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION . by some miracle they are annihilated. When, in later life, one attains the power of religious insight, and the deeper forces speak through one, they call into activity the whole nature, and must consequently be tuned to the harmony of one's earlier habits of thought and activity. On the other hand, it is doubtless equally true that one cannot attain a deep revelation without approaching it from these central channels of one's nature ; ' Except ye become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Childhood things then enter into the later conception for two reasons : first, because it is impossible to escape the effect of the earlier conceptions, since they corre- spond to the great channels in the nervous mechanism ; second, because childhood conceptions are doubtless in the main right. What other test have we of the Tightness of those central conceptions which constitute the bone and sinew of religion than that the race has expressed itself most deeply through them, that they harmonise with our deepest impulses ? These religious conceptions are the fullest interpretation of the life of any period. The child drinks in unconsciously the quali- ties in his environment that naturally lead him to these conceptions. He possesses an aptitude through heredity towards these ideas which are the common possession, and drinks in through his instinct of imitation those habits of thought which lead him irresistibly in this direction. Hence it is that there is passed on from one generation to the next that which is the purest essence of the life of the people, and at the same time the child contains within himself the germs of this life. It is not because the great truths which are embodied in dogmas and conventions are wrong that youth cannot understand them, but only that youth holds them at arm's-length in order to look at them and try to under- stand them. They have no meaning to him, simply because they are objects to his consciousness. To be religious facts they must constitute a part of his own nature ; they must be worked over into the world of ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 293 values ; they must not only be the things seen, but must be part of the consciousness which sees. The soul of the youth is longing for a religion, and is trying to manufacture one. It is trying at the same time to be the maker and the thing made, and fails in the attempt. 'The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation.' The life of the senses must give way, and one must be willing to be an organ for the expression of universal life. ' The kingdom of heaven is within you.' This is the revelation that comes only in its completeness with maturity. One appreciates religious truth from within ; he himself is the embodiment of the deeper spiritual truth of the world, and is one in essence with' the spiritual universe, which he has been trying to discover. ' For only by unlearning. Wisdom comes. And climbing backward to diviner Youth ; What the world teaches profits to the world, What the soul teaches profits to the soul. Which then first stands erect with Godward face, When she lets fall her pack of withered facts, The gleanings of the outward eye and ear. And looks and listens with her finer sense ; Nor Truth nor Knowledge cometh from without.' Having found the revelation within his own being, the full-grown man or woman sets about, as one of the units of an organised whole, to transform it into life. CHAPTER XXIII EXTERNAL INFLUENCES Up to this time we have been looking for the processes of growth, regardless in large measure of the forces from without which help to determine them. The force of surroundings has constantly been reflected ; but it is worth our while, for the sake of equilibrium, to take our point of view for the moment in the external influ- ences and see how powerfully they act in shaping the character of the religious life, and to get a crude notion of the relative value of these influences in the opinion of the subjects themselves. The relative importance of some of these influences is suggested in Table XXV. It is made out on the basis of the percentage of cases in which the different items were mentioned. Per Cent- nf Per Cent, of External Influence. Cases External Influence. Cases. F. M. F. M. Parents (both) . 23 32 Teacher . 9 6 Father . I Specific Writers 17 17 Mother . 8 6 Science . 3 8 Others in Family 3 I Art, Music, Nature, Family Life 2 12 Poetry 8 15 Inflttence of Home Books (in general) . 10 12 (total) . 39 52 Deaths . 9 13 A Friend . 22 29 Misfortunes or Ill- Example of People . 12 13 health . 9 2 People (sum of two Personal Struggles . 9 preceding) . 34 42 Warning from Sur- Church or Pastor 23 : 29 roundings . 2 5 Table XXA'. — Showing the relative prominence of the external influences which shape the religious life. 294 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 295 Foremost among them are the influences of home life. First in this is, naturally, the influence and ex- ample of parents. It is often spoken of as the most powerful of all the influences. For example : ' My parents have been the strongest influence of my life, religiously and otherwise.' That of the mother is oftenest mentioned separately, and in the warmest terms. It is frequently the atmosphere of the home that is most strongly felt. One person says : ' I was kept steady during my youth by reflection on the happiness which so markedly characterised both my parents' and grandparents' homes.' Next in prominence is the influence of a friend, or the example of persons whose character is admired. F. ' My life was influenced most by a bosom friend, whose lofty, noble character put to shame small things in me.' M. ' I had a tendency unconsciously to imitate a friend whom I admired. Someone sinned — I smiled ; my friend frowned. I never forgot it' M. ' The strongest influence was a girl, now dead, who was a schoolmate. I think she was worthy of worship.' F. ' The sunlight of the real God in my aunt warmed and inspired me.' M. ' My uncle shook me from my lethargy and im- morality.' Somewhat less frequent are the influences connected with church life. F. 'Church has been a second home to me all my life.' F. ' The church has furnished spiritual food, and been a rudder and anchor to my life.' M. ' Hearing a sermon led me to devote my life to the ministry.' Brief hints of many others are found in the follow- ing : F. ' Nature calls up religious feelings constantly.' M. ' In reading books I have had a tendency to become like the characters I read of M. ' The study of the doctrine of evolution has added immensely to the Christian plan of salvation.' F. 'Misfortunes have been the greatest influence.' F. ' Hard fortune has developed my character and moral courage.' M. ' The sight of wicked people increased my desire to live a religious life.' 296 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION F. ' I determined not to live as my father was living.' M. ' The death of my father and being thrown on my own resources have had much to do with my growth.' M. ' The death of my brother increased my faith, and drew me nearer to God.' The fact of greatest significance in regard to the external influences is that they belong almost exclusively to childhood and youth. It is rarely that a deep impression is received after maturity. During early years it is the quieter influences that surround the child — those of home, parents and church — that leave their impress. The child is impression- able, and it seems to drink in its environment uncon- sciously, and afterward to appreciate its worth. The experiences of adolescence are more dramatic. Youth is called out in great ways by contact with persons and books ; the religious life is stirred by coming upon scientific conceptions, or by some fresh enthusiasm for art or nature ; it is often shaken by misfortunes and struggles. Youth is in an explosive condition, and is ready to be touched off by this influence or that. The adult is doubtless thrown into as many new surroundings — encounters as many crises in his contact with science or literature or people ; but they do not in the same way call forth a response. His habits are already formed ; his ways have become established. The mature person's life is controlled largely by ideals of his own ; it is determined more from within, while that of the child and that of the youth are influenced more from without. The biographies afford us glimpses into each step of the process of emancipation from the control of environ- ment. Older persons repeatedly avow themselves free from the authority of church, Bible, doctrines, and the like. Life is conducted in its own way, with all these as helps. One person, a woman of 35, says, ' As my religious life has deepened, I care less about attending church, although at times the service appeals to me strongly.' Along with the deepening of her own religious life a EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 297 certain sense of self-sufficiency increases. Among the younger respondents, however, we sometimes find them in the act of shaking themselves free from external con- trol. A girl of 17 writes: 'Because of circumstances I am a member of the church to which I belong. I am so troubled by the narrow views of my teachers that I have about decided to stay away from Sunday school and study the Bible for myself Doubt and storm and stress are evidences that the person is calling into question the established order of things, and gaining the power of conscious self-direction. CHAPTER XXIV GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS So far one important group has been neglected in our discussion of the growth from childhood to maturity. Many persons develop so evenly that it is impossible to distinguish transition points in their progress. Before proceeding to complete the picture of the religious life of maturity, we must bring these in review. If they have been neglected up to the present point, it is in part because their line of growth is not easily describable. Frequently all that can be said is that they grew out of a religion of childish simplicity, and have now put away childish things. Those persons to whom the last few chapters have been devoted, who have passed through a zigzag course of development, reflect more clearly the processes of growth, and, taken all together, show in more picturesque way the paths leading from childhood to adult life ; although, as will be seen later, they come out at about the same point as those whose develop- ment has been a process of unconscious growth, and who cannot mark out times and seasons. The mode of progress of the ones we have been considering is com- parable to that of the insect, which is now in the larva stage, now in the pupa, and now has become a full- grown butterfly. The others grow more as a tree, which year by year has been added to by a little ; and when the process is completed, one can only say it was then a tiny sprout, now it is a sturdy oak. Although there is often little to be said about the Way in which these persons have passed from childhood to a vital grasp of GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 299 spiritual things, and the causes which have led to the unfoldment, they were usually able at least to point out the direction of growth by contrasting its nature at the earlier and later times, and to indicate some of the conditions which have favoured so harmonious a de- velopment. The direction of their advance, as marked by the extremes between childhood and maturity, will be discussed in the later chapters. At present we shall confine ourselves to the consideration of those con- ditions which bring about gradual growth, and of some of the difficulties in the way of attaining it. One condition which seems to conduce to gradual development is religious surroundings in childhood. F. ' Mother taught me to pray at her knee, and I always had a whispered prayer that none but God could understand. When I did anything wrong, mother required me to seek forgiveness. The change from careless, indifferent childhood to earnest, warm interest in God's work was very gradual and very natural after the good training I received.' F. ' Mother was patient and gentle with me. I had church and Sunday school associations of the pleasantest kind ; I was not taught anything about hell and Satan. I have not changed rny childhood phrase, " Our Father in heaven," except to widen the term.' M. ' I had God-fearing parents, and was surrounded by all the influences which go to make godly character. From infancy I was taught to believe that I belonged to the Saviour, and that He loved me. My delight in Christian thought and asso- ciation has changed with the passing years only to become intensified.' The value of these surroundings was shown in a statistical way in the last chapter. Of the factors which have exerted a positive effect on the religious life, the influences of home were most fre- quently mentioned. It often happens that the religion of a child is an atmosphere which he breathes, so whole- some and enlivening that he takes it up and works it over into his very being. If we recall the fact, and appreciate the causes underlying it, that adult religion 300 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION is so often found to be simply an enlargement of the central conceptions of childhood, we shall see that not only the line of growth but the quality of the developed spiritual consciousness is in part determined by the quality of the spiritual air breathed by the child. If from the earliest years the child drinks in the conception that religion is a life of love and helpfulness and not a body of doctrines, it will go far toward obviating the necessity of learning it as a painful lesson. Another pretty clearly marked condition of gradual growth is that children be kept reasonably free from dogmas which they are incapable of assimilating. The dogmas may be in essence right if they can be fully interpreted, and it may be and probably is necessary to teach children much that they cannot understand — in fact, many things that appeal to the deeper intuitions, and that will never be understood as clear cognitions ; but it should never be forgotten that religious con- ceptions easily crystallise, and that one of the greatest hindrances to growth is that these set forms which project themselves out of an earlier life frequently be- come so numerous and insoluble as to be unassimilable by the young person who is starting life afresh. The freedom of childhood to grow in a natural and un- hampered way seems often a means of escaping serious crises. One woman writes : ' I had no religious obliga- tions imposed upon me, but followed my own will. My child-life was a delight. I have had complete faith in God from childhood.' Another respondent, a man, says : ' Traditional theology never appealed to me, but always since my early years I have felt myself a child of God. My growth has been even from childhood.' The danger, on the other hand, of forcing conceptions upon children which do not fit is illustrated in the following instance : F. ' A Sunday school teacher tried to impress my unworthiness and sin upon me, and told me that I would be lost for ever if I was not converted. For three years I waited in misery of mind for the expected conversion. Fortunately a dear friend ex- GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 301 plained that unless I had done something very wrong, or had some heathen beliefs to cast aside, all I needed was to make a public avowal of my faith and purpose. I was tremendously relieved, and joined church in a month. I realise more and more my insignificance, and God's power and glory.' Still another cause which facilitates even and har- monious growth is that the needs of the child be care- fully inet at every point in its development. A typical case is the following, of a woman whose surroundings apparentl}' adapted themselves progressively to her needs : ' As I grew older, and read more and was guided and strengthened by parents and teachers, I gradually came to understand what Christianity means, and to trust it. I had religious convictions from child- hood ; their influence on me grew as my love and Christian surroundings grew, and gradually shaped my spiritual life.' Especially are these helps needed toward the beginning of adolescence. At that time a certain amount of independence of thought and action seems a natural and wholesome demand of one's nature. If serious intellectual questionings are met seriously, it appears that often youth is kept steady when otherwise it might rebel. A minister of the writer's acquaintance, who is a wise teacher and parent, learned indirectly that his son was beginning to inquire into the things he had been taught, and had even asked for reasons why he should believe in the existence of God. Instead of treating the slumbering doubt as an offence against religion, and fearing that the boy was on the downward road, he awaited his opportunity to help him through his difficulties. He describes the incident in this way : ' It was in the evening. We walked together chatting in most familiar fashion. I took him by the hand, and after a little pause in the conversation, I said substan- tially, " I heard something good about you the other day, something that showed that you are growing toward manhood." Of course he wanted to know what I had heard, and I told him. I told him that children 302 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION * get most of their first ideas from their parents, just as the little robins get their food from their parents, but that as they grow they want to know some reason for their opinions ; that I was glad to have him ask for reasons for believing that there is a God ; that this question of his made my heart leap with gladness as I thought of the time when we would sit in my study as companions in thought, and talk over great things.' The father adds, ' The boy is a Christian man at this writing, preparing a graduating thesis on Christian Ethics.' The cases are numerous which indicate the lack of wisdom of teachers or parents in failing to sympathise with the real needs of young persons, and the con- sequent reaction against social standards. The follow- ing instances will illustrate : F. ' I was pushed by older people into questionable extremes of piety.' (Years of revolt succeeded). F. ' My Sunday-school teacher tried to get me to join the church ; when he talked to me it would harden me instantly.' M. ' My parents and teachers impressed upon me that I must believe all or nothing (at 19.) It did not take me long to decide which.' M. ' Among all my childish troubles, " keep- ing the Sabbath holy," and being slicked up and dragged to church and Sunday school were the most dreadful. On Sundays we could not whittle, go faster than a walk, go down to the river, laugh, play in any way, whistle, etc. Sunday was a black chasm. No one who has not passed through it can imagine how I felt as Saturday night drew on. It was as if I were about to " walk through the valley of the shadow of death." We were obliged to spend the day at church and Sunday school, both of which I loathed. I must have listened to a certain pastor for nearly ten years, but the only impression left on my mind was of a blue-jay jumping up and down on a limb and scolding me at the top of his voice, and I hated the sight or even thought of him. In addition to the torture of church and Sunday school, we were obliged to commit to memory whole psalms, chapters of the Bible, hymns, and the thing I worst of GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 303 all detested was the reading of certain so-called "re- ligious books." I rather enjoyed Pilgrim's Progress, but one particular book caused me more distress than everything else in my boyish experience put together. It is Jeremy Taylor's Memoirs. I never got more than half through it, but I was compelled to read at it for years. Such an utter loathing was developed toward that book that it seems as if even now it would be an agreeable pastime to tear out the leaves one by one and crumple and burn them. Every touch of religious ideas was paralysing, and as they were forced upon me and smeared all over me, it seems like an attempt to crust over the actively moving, growing and feeding larva with the pupa case too soon. It left behind it a strong aversion to developing in the direction of the sort of religious life which had been revealed to my child mind; and this may account for the course of my subsequent growth, or for some features of it at least.' (Reaction and indifference followed from 24 to 26.) One reason why the religious lives of many persons develop symmetrically and harmoniously is clearly that there is a certai^i mixture of faith and doubt continually — a sufficient degree of freedom to question all things to insure a clear horizon, and enough trust and insight and poise of spirit to remain firmly rooted in the heart of religion. M. 'Doubts (at 18) were the occasion of giving up weaker for stronger incentives to virtue. Spiritual growth preceded the doubt. I always felt beneath me a strong foundation of truth.' F. ' My growth has been gradual. Since I came in contact with people of other faiths my beliefs have broadened ; I have come to see good in almost every faith, but have clung to my own church. I have accepted the later ideas of the atonement and the inspiration of the Bible. God is my rock and fortress, and I trust Him.' M. (Clergyman of an orthodox church.) ' Studies have carried me away from some of the old landmarks; I never get excited when I see another one disappearing. I have learned, too, to " doubt my doubts." 1 am an 304 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION evolutionist.' F. ' I never was orthodox, so doubts do not trouble me. I am sifting, changing, rejecting, all the time. I am holding my opinions open to change, modification and adjustment of any kind, after the testimony on the subject, both for and against, is all in.' The proper balance of faith and doubt during adoles- cence appears to be of relatively rare occurrence. The conception of life which seems to underlie these in- stances is that religion is a growing thing, and that its growth consists in an endless process of refining. They raise the question as to whether it would not be in the interest of religion for such an attitude to become habitual. We shall see in the next chapter that it is a common trend of development for adults to reach that point of view at which they look upon religion as a dynamic rather than a completed thing. Not only is the spiritual life so considered, but the body of religious conceptions are looked upon as capable of indefinite modification and progress. An instance already re- ferred to in the chapter on Doubt is so much in point that it bears repetition in this connection. It is that of a clergyman who writes : ' I have not passed through a series of beliefs. All my thinking has been an expan- sion of the fundamental conception reached while in college that the death of Christ was a declaration that there never was, nor ever could be, an obstacle between God and man. I always hail doubt as sure to reveal some unexpected truth. As often as I have tried to dodge doubts, I have suffered. My real doubts have always come upon me suddenly and unaccountably, and have been the precursors of fresh discovery.' In this case there has been supreme reverence for the ' funda- mental conception reached while in college,' but at the same time there has been that attitude toward it which allows it to expand and intensify indefinitely. In the light of these records, it seems possible to come to such an attitude in regard to honest doubt that it will be a means of conserving energy and of rendering growth even and harmonious instead of being the very thing Growth without definite transitions 305 ifhich so often throws life into a state of discord and Dcrplexity. Tiiese are some of the conditions, then, which con- tribute to the gradual type of religious growth in which a high degree of spiritual perfection is attained as naturally and easily as a plant unfolds. That such harmonious development is possible is beautifully illus- trated in the case of Dr Edward Everett Hale, the strength and symmetry of whose character needs no emphasis. He discusses the nature of his growth and the influences which led to it in these words : ' I observe, with profound regret, the religious struggles which come into many biographies, as if almost essen- tial to the formation of the hero. I ought to speak of these, to say that any man has an advantage, not to be estimated, who is born, as I was, into a family where the religion is simple and rational ; who is trained in the theory of such a religion, so that he never knows, for an hour, what these religious or irreligious struggles are. I always knew God loVed me,' and I was always grateful to Him for the world He placed me in. I always liked to tell Him so, and was always glad to receive His suggestions to me. "" — ' ^~— --,_^ ' To grow up in this way saves boy or youth Trom those battles which men try to ^^cribe and cannot describe, which seem to use up a gresjvdeal of young life. I can remember perfectly that, when Xwas coming to manhood, the half-philosophical novels o^he time had a deal to say about the young men and maidens who were facing'the "problem of life." I had no idea what- ever what the problem of life was. To live with all my might seemed to me easy ; to learn where there was so much to learn seemed pleasant and almost of course ; to lend a hand, if one had a chance, natural ; and if one did this, why, he enjoyed life because he could not help it, and without proving to himself that he ought to enjoy it. I suppose that a skilful professor of the busi- ness could have prodded up my conscience, which is, I think, as sensitive as another's. I suppose I could have 3o6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION been made very wretched, and that I could have made others very wretched. But I was in the hands of no such professor, and my relations with the God whose child I am were permitted to develop themselves in the natural way. ' Now, no man can choose the religious communion into which he can be born, more than he can choose the place of his birth. But it may be possible, for those who have to direct the education of children, to see that that education shall be conducted on the lines which I have indicated. A child who is early taught that he is God's child, that he may live and move and have his being in God, and that he has, therefore, in- finite strength at hand for the conquering of any diffi- culty, will take life more easily, and probably will make more of it, than one who is told that he is born the child of wrath and wholly incapable of good.' ^ In this description Dr Hale undoubtedly holds up an ideal that is well worth striving after, namely, to make the most out of life with the least waste of energy. But the standard here set must remain for the majority of human beings an ideal. We have to face the fact that at the present time and with the con- ditions under which we live, growth usually does not come in that way ; and, if we appreciate only a fraction of the difficulties in passing from childhood to maturity, we shall see that such a course is well-nigh impossible. As has been fitly said, the child is to traverse in a few years the path which has been passed over by the race in as many millions of years. It is the miracle of pro- ducing in this short time an essentially spiritual life, which is as much above the innocent life of childhood as the indefinitely fine and complex physiological function- ing of a mammal is above that of a protozoon. The quality of life on this higher plane is infinitely complex and delicate; and, in the interplay of forces, there is a chance at every point for the normal course of develop- ment to be side-tracked. In the records we are 1 Forum, Vol. X. , p. 70, ' Formative Influences. ' GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 307 studying there 'are many instances in which it appears that all of the conditions pointed out above for the attainment of harmonious growth have been fulfilled, and in which growth, after all, is attended with friction and difficulty. Some of the forces which tend to thwart even development, and which are relatively out of the possibility of control, are apparent in the records. One of these is the one we have already mentioned — a lack of physical vitality sufficient to support the mental activity. One of the respondents, a man whose youth was full of storm and stress, writes : ' I was reared in a Christian home and sheltered as closely from evil as one could be. I was taught from the first to regard myself a Christian, and, above all, to do right and to please God. I stopped going to high school from nervous prostration at 16. Religion was my all-absorbing interest, and I sought to carry it out in practice. I studied and began to doubt. There came a time when I would have answered the questions of God and immortality in the negative.' The difficulty of getting through adolescence with- out a crisis is also heightened by the fact that physio- logical growth is not continuous. During a year or two at the beginning of youth, the volume of the heart increases almost to the size of that of an adult, the arterial system diminishes in volume, and blood-pressure is very much augmented ; there are more red corpuscles in the blood, the lung capacity is increased, and there is more carbonic acid in the breath — all of which show that rapid transformations are going on in the organism. If nature has established this developmental crisis in physiological growth, which we must regard as normal, we should not be surprised to find as marked irregularities in the psychic life. Indeed, it is a well- recognised fact that the physiological changes are directly connected with the psychic condition. It is not uncommon to regard peculiarities of temperament as dependent largely on circulation,' and temperament ' P. Lesshaft, ' De I' Education de r enfant dans la famille, et de sa significatioti. ' 3o8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION we have found to be one of the central factors which determine the character of religious experience. Given two persons reared in perfectly wholesome religious surroundings, if one is naturally highly sensitive, and the other phlegmatic, the former is more likely to be- come restless and reactionary during the adolescent transformations, while the other may have an unevent- ful growth. If we appreciate the complexity of life in both its outer and inner relations, we shall see the liability of producing a tangle in the warp and woof of the inter-acting forces. In the multiform society in which a human being is compelled to live, it is manifestly impossible to control all of the influences and be sure that they are the very best — many of the difficulties which arise are professedly the result of unpropitious surroundings. And the complexity is just as great on the subjective side. Out of the multitude of conceptions which it is possible for a mind to entertain, only one, or at most a few, can be held as the object of clear con- sciousness at one time. But we live in an environment in which there are no end of conceptions that are imposed on one, in which there are countless duties that arise to crowd out or offset one's habitual mode of activity. The problem of squaring one's life with these is not the difficulty of steering between Scylla and Charybdis, but a thousandfold more delicate. One can, indeed, let the problems go, and live in one's own way; but unless one's own way happens to be nature's way, as determined by the course that the whole of life is pursuing, one's life becomes severed from the whole, and is consequently lost. Society insists on her forms as inviolably right. Each individual is compelled sooner or later to take them into account ; and this is no easy matter, for it is one of the deepest instincts, which shows itself at the very beginning of life, to hold one's own ground, to insist on one's own point of view. But another instinct, just as forceful, draws one toward the thought-life of the whole — the instinct of sociality, the desire to share the life of society. The chances are GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 309 very great that one will be caught between these warring influences. It is an inevitable condition of developing consciousness that there shall be great tenacity for a conception, religious or otherwise, which is once entertained. Consciousness grows by such conceptions, and for a time they seem all-important It is equally inevitable, as one develops out of a child- hood in which a few conceptions fill one's mental horizon, that new ones should project themselves into the field of consciousness. It is difficult to gain a new idea, and next to impossible to change one's point of view. Some sort of friction and clash is almost sure to arise. It is certain to come in adolescence, when the great transition from a life of the senses into a world of ideas and spiritual perceptions is to be accomplished, unless the youth is so happily constituted that nature works out the result for him and he wakens up to the fact that he is a full-grown spirit. And the struggle is likely to continue until one comes to welcome the approach of new conceptions, while at the same time treasuring the old ; until he looks on life as a growing thing ; until he has set his faith on ideals, and has learned the secret of helping them to develop. The end of life seems to be growth, and in the very analysis of these difficulties which seem to bar the way of free development, they present themselves as im- perfections which must be overcome. That is, it appears to be an ideal constantly to be striven after, that growth should be full and harmonious and beautiful, and that the end should be reached without a hitch. We may be led into some wisdom in the attainment of this ideal by keeping in mind what appears to be the condition which underlies it, expressed in physiological terms — namely, the final, complete co-ordination of the lower and higher brain areas. The difficulty during adolescence is to bring into activity a new brain area and make it harmonise with the rest. Whatever steps will make this co-ordination keep up with the rate of growth, whatever will progressively bring into free activity any 310 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION part which is ripe for functioning, will tend to ward off a catastrophe. Expressed in these terms, one sees the danger, for example, of crystallising the life of a child about conceptions which are too far beyond its grasp ; to dose children on constantly reiterated theological doctrines establishes channels of nervous discharge which must of necessity in childhood be on a lower level, and which are so deeply cut that, a little later, any new discharges from a higher level are wilfully inhibited. There is doubtless no surer way of passing through adolescence safely than by a wise anticipation during later childhood of the most healthy lines of growth. If the higher brain areas which are to function in the fully developed spiritual life are brought little by little into activity, their more complete functioning at a later time will be a matter of course. Any means whatsoever which will lead toward the most complete co-ordination of the brain areas and unification ' of the personality by a process of harmonious development seems to be in accord with nature's way. A few persons seem to have an uneventful de- velopment because they do not leave the religion of childhood, perhaps never wake up to an immediate realisation of religion. They raise the question whether it would not have been conducive to growth even to have suffered a little on the rack of doubt and storm and stress. CHAPTER XXV ADULT L I F E— B E LI E F S , In the chapters preceding, we have followed the de- velopment of religion from childhood through the many- diverging lines of adolescence. In these complexities we found a unifying centre in the development of religious self-consciousness. Somewhat to our surprise, at the close of adolescence, we came upon a definite turning- point, which marked the entrance upon mature life. The fact which underlay this transition from youth to manhood and womanhood, and brought unity into its very great diversity, appeared to be the final co- ordination of the higher life of intelligence and insight and the lower life of the senses. The mature person we found to be one who carries his higher unity over into a life of action. In the following three chapters we shall follow up the line of evidence still further by analysing the beliefs, feelings and ideals given by the respondents as a description of their status at the time when they made their records. In doing this we shall meet greater differences than heretofore. As life advances, it becomes progressively more complex. There are in reality as many lines of growth from earliest childhood as there are persons who develop ; but by studying them in their relation to one another, we are able to find a few well-marked types that reflect certain great trends of develop- ment. We may trace the line of growth by three methods. In the first place we may follow the individual tendencies as the respondents analyse their development 311 312 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION step by step. Again, since we have already noticed a tendency towards adolescent storm and stress, followed usually by a reconstruction, we may keep the beliefs, feelings and ideals of the persons in different stages of this process separate, and so let them cast their special horoscope at different points in the line of advance. These persons in turn we shall compare with those whose growth has been entirely gradual. In the third place we may separate the subjects into age-groups and so determine what beliefs, feelings and ideals are character- istic of different periods in life. Central Beliefs. Before we trace the line of growth through mature life, it is important to get a picture of those beliefs that are actually present and central in adult religious consciousness, and about which religious consciousness organises itself These, together with the percentages of their frequency, are shown in Table XXVI. Female. Male. God 75 75 Christ 43 44 Immortality .... 23 28 Conduct 21 28 Religion as a Life within 15 21 Religion as a Process of Growth . 9 27 Religion Centering in Philosophical or Scientific Conceptions .... 5 24 Table XXVI. — Showing in per cenl. of cases the most central religious beliefs. These headings will not be clear without some eluci- dation. Each of them is a composite of somewhat varying conceptions. The beliefs included in the first heading centre in the conception of a Being who is back ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 313 of the world and in it, and who controls it. God is variously described as Creator or Father, as Law or Love, as Force or Underlying Reality, as the Spirit in all things, and the like. Those instances are included which evade the term God, but nevertheless profess faith in an existence analogous to what other people mean by it. One person, for example, says : ' I feel myself a part of something bigger than I, that controls me.' The belief in Christ has also a diverse content. With some He is a personal Saviour, or the Saviour of the world in an unique sense ; with others He is the ideal of per- fect manhood ; a number simply express belief in Christ without saying further what they mean by the term. The character of the belief in immortality was usually not specified. One described the future life as non- corporeal, and two as the indestructibility of that which exists. The next heading includes those who regard right conduct as an essential element in religion. The meaning of the heading can be most readily seen by some typical quotations. A man of 34 writes : ' Religion with me means a system of life, an integral part of human evolution. Morality is the thing to be striven for ; but morality must have a religious sanction, a loving Deity.' A similar point of view is expressed by a woman of 54, who says : ' The higher life means health and spiritual tone and sympathy with people. It means to me a higher relationship with my fellow- man. God is the spring of this life, but it finds its expression in activity.' The term ' Religion as a Life Within ' demands fuller explanation. Persons frequently come to feel that the sanctions of life are not to be found at all in any- thing external, but within one's own consciousness ; that the higher life, if found at all, is revealed within one's personality ; that religion exists as an impulse toward a higher life ; that specific beliefs are non-essential, that the significance of religion is to be grasped not by reason, but by faith ; and that the essence of life is spirit. These persons represent a somewhat distinct type of belief, or 314 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION rather, of attitude toward life, which is almost diametric- ally opposed to the group comprised in the last heading of the table. The character of the type is suggested by the following quotations : M., 37. ' Not with the intellect, but with the spirit, man finds God.' F., 30. ' Vital religion is the breath of life with all earnest souls, and is not con- fined to creeds or formulas.' M., 44. ' Religion to me is a sort of instinct, an impulse toward a higher life.' F., 36. ' The most bottom truth is my own existence with capacity for working, feeling, loving and worshipping. That which commands my love and reverence is uni- versal, and is for all' The next heading, ' Religion as a Process of Growth,' is somewhat akin to the last, but differs from it in re- spect to the prominence of the notion that life is dynamic, that religion consists essentially not in some- thing that remains fixed as an object of faith, but in a progression from the lower to the higher. M., 27. ' I believe in evolution, in spiritual progress, as expressed in the Chambei'ed Nautilus. My conception of the world is that phenomena represent a progression out of mystery toward truth, goodness and beauty in increasing ratio to evil.' M., 57. ' Religion means steadily upward progress.' In distinction from the last two groups are those who regard religion as largely conditioned by philo- sophic or scientific conceptions. These are typical : M., 24. ' I have a profound and earnest belief in the doctrine of evolution. It has had more to do with the direction of my beliefs than anything else. It has added immensely to the grandeur of the Christian plan of redemption. I have honest doubt as to many popular beliefs, because they are absolutely contradictory to established scientific facts.' M., 23. ' The philosophic search for truth and devotion to ideals is my doctrine.' F., 74. 'Science is the only source of ■ enlightened wis- dom, morality and peace.' M., 32. ' I look to nature's laws for all I hope for.' These cases represent the demand for a clear, intellectual horizon, for a grasp of the world as a system. The unity which is gained is ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 3^5 the instrument of selection of one's religious conceptions. Those beliefs are retained which easily harmonise with it. The system itself even comes to have religious significance. These seven most important objects of belief are given in the table above in their order of frequency. The figures show the percentage of cases in which the various items are mentioned. Each of these conceptions is sometimes spoken of as that in which belief centres — • the one without which the whole religious attitude would change. The order of frequency with which each is central happens to be the same as that in the table, with the one exception, that Conduct stands first instead of fourth. The Line of Growth in Belief. In the first place, we shall inquire into the line of growth of one particular group of our subjects, namely, those who have passed through adolescent storm and stress and doubt. We found in an earlier chapter that these could easily be divided into three groups — those who still have a negative attitude toward religion, those in process of reconstruction, and those whose faith has been reconstructed ; we noticed furthermore that the ages of these persons formed an ascending series. Con- sequently, if we compare the religious convictions of these three classes, we shall have a means of determining the line of advance in beliefs with age for this particular type of experience. We shall be able at the same time to contribute something to the preceding picture of adol- escence, and .the way toward positive faith by noticing what beliefs are central in the earlier years, and how they increase or decrease with age. This is shown in the first three vertical columns of Table XXVII. The numbers give the percentage of the persons in each of the three groups by whom a certain object of belief is mentioned. From the first column it is evident that the three 3i6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION OJ C c 000 ^•oS Faith Re- constructed, after IJoubt. 00 ^ God . F. M. F. M. Per Cent. 44 (33) Per Cent. 42 5° Per Cent. 8S 79 Per Cent. 85 85 Per Cent. 73 67 Chrict S 21 41 52 40 45 47 67 Immortality F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. 6 26 34 20 25 20 22 Conduct (Morality) . 19 (33) 25 64 26 21 10 20 7 22 Religion as a Life Within . o 17 29 37 9 37 30 45 II Religion as Dynamic o 25 7 15 20 7 44 Religion as centering in Science or Philosophy F. M. 13 (67) 21 9 17 5 ; 15 1 II Table XXVII. — Showing how religious beliefs vary in different stages of beliefs which remain most firm during negation are those which centre in God, Conduct and Scientific conceptions. The number of persons, especially of men, in this column is so small that the figures do not bear close in- terpretation. Their value is enhanced, however, by the fact that they fall so well in line with what we found in the study of adolescence. It was observed there that, during the absence of distinctly religious feelings, the ethical and intellectual impulses came to the front. We ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 317 see from the table that in respect to belief likewise these two aspects of consciousness are active, the one making religion centre about morality, the other about scientific or philosophic conceptions. Also prominent is the belief in God, which is clearly for all the groups and all the ages the greatest organising centre of belief. The first three of these types of belief have a tendency to decrease during the second and last stages of reconstruc- tion, while the belief in God distinctly increases. During negation the beliefs in Christ and Immortality, suffer an almost complete rejection. The conceptions of religion as a dynamic power and as a life within have not yet become appreciated. This fact fits it perfectly with the prominence of the philosophic and scientific ideas, which may be regarded as diametric- ally opposed to them. During the second and third stages in the process we notice some marked changes. The belief in Christ which was rejected during the period of negation is already becoming reinstated in the second stage, and among those whose faith is finally reconstructed it has come to be present in about half the cases. The belief in Immortality, however, does not reappear until the final reconstruction, and is then pre- sent in about one-third of the cases. As a help to the farther discussion we must consider the sexes separately. The rational conceptions almost disappear among the women, but persist among the men ; the religious life of men during the process of recon- struction centres to a remarkably large degree in con- duct, but this factor remains fairly constant among women. It is during the second stage that religion as a process of growth and as a life within comes suddenly to the front with women, but this development does not appear among the men until the time of final reconstruc- tion. During the process of reconstruction the life of women centres in a subjective appreciation of religion as shown in the prominence of religion as growth and as a life within, while that of the men passes over into thinking and doing, as evidenced by the large percent- 3i8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION ages under science and philosophy and conduct. If we take the sexes together and consider all the types of belief, it is evident that the line of growth is toward the reinstatement of the faith in Christ and of that in Immortality, toward the gradual depreciation of rational and ethical Conceptions, and toward the enlargement of the belief in religion as a growing thing, and as a life appreciated from within. We are now to ascertain the line of growth in beliefs of the other large group of the cases, those whose de- velopment has been gradual. In columns four and five of Table XXVII. is found a comparison of the beliefs of those above 24 with those below that age. For the sake of convenience in comparing the beliefs of the older persons with those of the later stages of reconstruction, the natural order of the two gradual growth columns in regard to age is reversed. Comparing, then, the fifth column with the fourth, we find, just as in the last group, an increase in the belief in God and Immortality and a persistence in ethical beliefs. These contradict the last group, however, in the respect that there is a considerable decrease in the belief in Christ, and that the worth of rational conceptions is enhanced with age. This seems to be due to the fact that those whose develop- ment has been gradual have not been roused during the earlier years seriously to question matters of religious doctrine, whereas the others have passed through the period of negation at an earlier time and have come to a positive point of view. In regard to the comparison of religion as growth, it decreases among the men and increases among the women, which is just the reverse order of that in the last group. This difference entices one to attempt an ex- planation, which may, at the same time, prove faulty. It seems to bear out the difference already pointed out, that the persons of the gradual growth group now begin to question religious matters more seriously just at the time when those who have reconstructed their faith have settled their difficulties and are moving along spiritually. ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 319 Although there is an increase in the percentage of women who regard reUgion as a growth, this would not have been the case if the dividing line had been taken at 30 instead of 24. All those who make up the 15 per cent, of women in column four of the table are between the ages of 24 and 30. The most marked increment in any of the groups is that in the class who appreciate religion as a life within. This is in accordance with what we found in the last group, and points toward this as one of the most central tendencies in adult religious development. This result is of especial interest as being the first pointed answer to the question whether those whose growth has been even come out at the same point as those who have wandered through adolescence by devious ways. In this respect, which is most central for both classes, they exactly agree. The similarity in the final outcome of the two lines of growth is yet more fully brought out if we compare columns three and four in the table which represent adult persons of a comparable age. Glancing down the columns, we find not only the same beliefs present in both classes, but the percentage is almost the same in every instance. The only marked differences are in the ethical beliefs among women and in the conception of religion as growth in both sexes — differences the signifi- cation of which is not clear. The inference from the comparison of the mature life as determined by its attitude toward various great questions of ■ religious belief is that gradual growth and that which is ac- companied by stress and fluctuations are different ways of attaining the same end. For the sake of a more complete picture of the line of growth, all the cases, separated into age-groups, are thrown together in Table XXVIII. The figures represent the percentages of the number in each age- group who mention any of the beliefs. The value of the table is in following the line from left to right to see whether the different beliefs increase or decline with age. 320 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Females. Males. Year. Year. 16-29 20-23 78 24-29 30-39 40 or over. 20-24 25-29 30-39 40 or over. Belief in God . 67 67 79 JL 35 62 61 88 go Belief in Christ . 22 50 39 26 52 . 39 41 42 Belief in Immortality iS 17 II 37 35 10 22 29 53 Belief in Conduct fMor- ality) .... 16 i 17 1 22 10 45 29 22 35 26 Belief in Religion as a Life Within . . 6 17 32 40 10 II 24 42 Belief in Religion as Growth .... 22 28 10 33 22 33 16 Belief in Science or Philo- sophy .... 4 II 10 43 II 24 16 Rejection of certain Beliefs as Non-essential . 18 6 17 63 7° 19 28 41 S3 Rejection of Immortality . 4 j 6 16 30 14 6 11 Table XXVIII. — Showing how beliefs vary with age. The belief in God in some form is by far the most - central conception, and grows in importance as years. advance. After 40 there are almost none who do not^ mention it. There is advance likewise in the quality oL the belief which is not shown by the figures. Several., o.f the younger persons express it in the exact phrase- ology of the Apostles' Creed ; but there are none of- those over 25 who do not describe it with an evident- appreciation of its content. A girl of 17, for example,- says : ' Everything in the Apostles' Creed embodies my- deepest belief These younger persons are often found - in the process of awakening to the signification of the- idea of God. One young woman of 18 writes : ' I really^ believe there is a God.' Belief in God as a larger un-- named Force or Spirit, or as a Power that works for^ righteousness, while common among the older personsj- is almost never given by the youngen-~ ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 321 The belief in Immortality, another world-problem, enters more into consciousness with age. In the last line of the table we see also that the conception of Immortality is more and more set aside as non-essential as life advances. The fact that acceptance and rejection of it both increase with age shows that it is a vital question which forces itself forward for consideration, and must be decided one way or the other. The belief in Christ, which we found to increase with age among those whose faith is reconstructed, continues to have about the same worth when both groups are taken together. With both sexes it has greatest promi- nence in the early twenties. It is of importance to notice the place which conduct holds as an organising centre of belief all through mature life. Underlying this fact is the same thing which has been forcing itself upon our attention all the way along from earliest childhood. The ethical instinct, the effort to do right, is far the most constant and persistent of all the forces that are active in the child life. In adoles- cence, when the new life bursts forth, its most important content was ethical. During storm and stress and doubt that which remained firmest when life was least organised was this same instinct. And now we find, in describing their fundamental attitudes toward life, that the re- spondents already in the late teens and twenties mention conduct almost as frequently as at any later time in life. It apparently continues to play a vital part all through life, while among the older women it seems to have even greater worth than among the younger. It should be recalled that among the things which are given as abso- lutely essential, the sine qua non of religion, conduct was most frequently mentioned. A woman of 40 writes: 'Life would be meaningless to me without a belief in God, but without it I would still continue to do my duty. The test of religion is conduct towards my fellow-beings.' Another person, a man of 30, says : ' Religion is more a life, a living, than a system. It is a series of daily actions which determines conduct. Its essence is daily X 322 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION doing of good to one's fellow-men.' Again, a woman of 31 says: ' In case of the absence of a belief in God, I would still live by a categorical imperative.' The ethical instinct^ although not the most prominent, is the most con- stant and persistent factor in the religious life. That attitude toward religion which makes it centre in a rational system is relatively infrequent among the women ; among the men, although it remains common throughout life, it occurs most often in the early twenties. It is an interesting suggestion in the comparison of the sexes that its importance is greatest in the earlier years among men, and in the later years among women. The conception of religion as a process of growth, with the exception of the women under 20, begins vigor- ously, but later it declines in both sexes. It is natural that it should be greatest during those years when life is fullest of energy and activity. With the exception of the beliefs in God and Immor- tality, the conception of religion as a life within under- goes the most definite progress with years. It has more value than the belief in immortality in showing the central tendency in development, from the fact that immortality is taught as a religious dogma, while the appreciation of religion as an inner life must, or at least apparently does, spring up spontaneously. It is not grasped by any of the women under 20, and seldom by those of either sex before 30. Among those instances which occur in the earlier years, most show this concep- tion in the process of formation. A man of 22 says : ' I see more of the goodness of God in everything. I am trying to see His will in whatever I do.' Another says ; ' Religion with me involves love and beauty, and possibly a realisation of myself as one with God.' It is instructive to contrast this tentative and uncertain point of view with that of some of the others in whom it has been worked over as one of the certainties of life. One person writes : ' The deepest religious truth to me is the power of a man to live a devout life. No beliefs are necessary, for religion is feeling.' Running parallel with the in- ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 323 crease of this conception of religion with years is the setting aside of certain beliefs as non-essential. Among these are the divinity of Christ, Immortality, the authority of the Church, the inspiration of the Bible, and the like, most of which are beliefs embodied in traditional doc- trines. This shows that the person is progressively working out for himself or herself an independent point of view, and is coming to appreciate religion rather than to look upon it objectively. This is the same tendency which was observed in regard to the belief in God. The two conceptions, belief in God and the one we are now considering, sometimes work together as that of the one- ness of God and man, of God expressing himself through human life. These two types show that the most central tendency is toward an appreciation of religion as a life within, and toward a realisation of this as a part of the life of God. This falls in line with what we found in the study of conversion, which showed itself to be essentially a definite step in the birth of a spiritual self that w^s felt to be part of a larger life. The three groups of persons — those who have ex- perienced conversion, those who passed through storm and stress and doubt, and those whose growth has been gradual — in this respect show a similar culmination, and tend to establish the fact that we have here one of the great tendencies in religious development. CHAPTER XXVI ADULT LIFE — RELIGIOUS FEELINGS The religious feelings of mature life centre most natur- ally about three things : the sense of one's own spiritual life, the consciousness of the larger life outside the self, and an appreciation of the relationship existing between the self and this larger life. Those feelings which are intimately connected with the sense of one's own spiritual life are such as these : independence and freedom, joy and ecstasy, and spiritual exaltation. Adolescence we found to be a time when new life was beginning to function. At the same time distinctively religious feelings were rare. In maturity the fresh life rises into consciousness, and is worked over into an actual possession ; one has a sense of the new energy within. This shows itself in one way in the sense of freedom ; one person says : ' I feel immortal and inde- structible.' Others express it in a similar way. ' I feel independent of the world, and superior to fate.' ' When in the hills I desire nothing, feel nothing, but just exult in the reality of being.' This attitude represents the bare feeling of self-existence. Frequently the sense of one's own personality is suffused with emotion, and expresses itself as the feeling of joyousness while engaged in religious activity or during contemplation. For example : ' It is a delight to me to do God's work.' ' Often at church my heart heaves with emotion, and finds an outlet in tears.' It is relatively infrequent that this type of feeling exists pure ; on the contrary, it is 324 ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 325 usually mingled with the sense of one's relationship to one's fellow-man and God. There is again the mere sense of the larger life — God, Nature, persons and society — outside the self as an object of contemplation. This shows itself as awe, the sense of mystery, reverence, love, and aesthetic apprecia- tion. These quotations will illustrate : F. ' I have an instinctive feeling that there is something higher and better than myself to revere. There has been a slow and steady growth in veneration and love for the one Spirit of Goodness,' M. ' I never felt emotion of the kind others have. Sometimes a contemplation of the world, of humanity, and ■ of the universe, awakens a sense of sublimity and infinity. This arouses awe and wonder at the tnystery of life and of its unity. Sometimes this grows into a sense of the great world spirit in and through all things.' This out-going love finds its object just as frequently in love and helpfulness towards one's fellows ; in the pleasure of helping along the growth of human institutions. It is an indication, doubtless, of the complexity of the mental associations that are forming, especially in late adolescence and in early adult life, that the world outside presents itself as something not only grand and mysterious, but beautiful. The finer qualities of human life are idealised, the aesthetic side of external nature and of church forms and the like is the aspect which is most appreciated. This is well reflected in the following instance of a woman who professes not to have the usual religious feelings ; ' I am satisfied that I feel more serene in church than most Christians. I feel most reverent in a Catholic church, whether it is empty or during service ; and more reverent in an Episcopal than in any other Protestant church. There are some things that call forth my feelings — a burial service, an eclipse of the sun, the sight of Niagara, the power of the ocean — these have moved me most' It is not infrequent for the life outside of one to present itself in this way in a trans- figured form. 326 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION It is far more common for the religious feelings to grow out of a sense of the relationship between the self and the whole. The relationship conceived takes every possible form, depending on whether the life outside is more vivid in consciousness or whether the fact of one's own life is more keenly appreciated. When the former condition obtains- — that is, when the fact of God's greatness and majesty, and of man's smallness, is vividly felt, there results a distinct class of feelings, dependence, humility and resignation. The character of this group is illustrated by the following quotations : F. ' I lost myself in the recognition of freedom, power and love.' F. ' I feel my weakness and un worthiness ; I long for more strength.' F. ' Some- thing in me makes me feel myself a part of something bigger than I that is controlling.' M. ' I feel a depend- ence on and an intimate relation to a power not my- self M. ' I have no confidence in myself or anything but God ; I have completely submitted to God's way.' During adolescence, as we saw, the fact that presented itself in the case of spontaneous awakenings and con- versions was that of the dawning of a new life within. But now that sense seems to give way, and gradually, as life advances, one awakens to the other fact, that the life of the whole is the more important; and consequently, as we shall see, the sense of dependence increases with years. One frequently finds in single instances evidences of the transformation in this respect. A woman who had passed through an adolescent upheaval in which she professed not to have a religion, writes, in regard to her present position : ' God, immortality and freedom have more meaning to me now than ever before, not so theoretical as a few years ago, but nearer and more real, while the ego is now not so important.' The feeling of dependence in the process of formation is clearly seen in the following instance of a young woman of 17: 'I cannot explain what I think of God ; I cling to the idea because I find it a comfort in distress ; it helps rtie to look up to something vastly superior to myself, morally ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 327 and intellectually. It is a comfort to me, so even if it is foolish, why should I give it up ? I must have some- one to pray to.' This last instance seems to show at the same time the raw material out of which another religious feeling develops, that of the sense of oneness with God, and of Divine Companionship. It centres in one of the deepest instincts of human life, the need for society, for com- panionship, for kinship. This instinct fully developed shows itself in unmistakable terms in such instances as the following : a woman writes, ' I have the sense of a presence, strong, and at the same time soothing, which hovers over me. Sometimes it seems to enwrap me with sustaining arms. God is a personal Being, who knows and cares for His creatures.' Another woman writes : ' I have often a consciousness of a Divine Presence, and sweet words of comfort come to me.' The sense of oneness and nearness shows itself in many ways, whether personal or impersonal, in which the essential thing is the feeling of close relationship between the self and the whole. These instances will illustrate : F. ' I feel the presence of Jesus in me as life, force and divinity.' F. ' I have a sense of the presence of a living God.' M. 'I have heightened experiences when God seems very near.' M. ' I have a sense of a spiritual presence in the world.' M. ' My soul feels itself alone with God, and resolves to listen to His voice in the depths of spirit. My soul and God seek each other. The sublime feeling of a presence comes over me.' Another feeling which grows out of this relationship is that of faith and trust. F. ' Each year my faith is stronger and richer.' F. ' I have unquestioned assur- ance that what is pure, honourable and enlightened is best in harmony with the frame of things, and I need not see how.' F. 'When I pray, a sense of love and trust comes over me.' F. ' I do not understand, but I believe God.' M. ' After getting to work for Christ, my faith took strong hold.' This shades off into rest and 328 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION peace. A woman who had passed through several years of severe storm and stress and doubt, and suffered mis- fortunes, writes, when 44 : ' I feel rest and security of soul.' All of these groups of feelings taken together seem to indicate that the condition underlying them is the organisation of life within the sphere of the higher mental activities. In terms of the nervous system, they may be said to imply that the personality has become identified with the association centres in the brain. The different phases of feeling are an index of greater or less success in living from the standpoint of highest association centres. Joy and spiritual exaltation are an expression of the fact that this final co-ordination of brain areas has been fairly completed. There is delight in the exercise of the higher psychic functions ; peace and rest are the natural consequence of the feeling of unity and wholeness that grows out of the complete unification of nerve elements. The stress and strain and tension that underlay the adolescent experiences has been relieved. There is no inhibition of the normal discharge of nervous energy. The functioning of life on this higher plane brings with it the awakening of ideas. Things are now seen in their relationships. In the intellectual sphere, one appreciates the unity of the world, and human life in its relationships to other physical realities ; in the social complex, one appre- ciates one's own life as one of the units in society ; so, in the realm of spiritual things, one feels oneself to be a part of a larger life. Human life is appreciated in its relationship to the life of God. The sense of oneness and divine companionship is the expression of the fact that life has had its birth into this larger world of spirit, and that it feels its kinship with the spiritual forces that exist. The most frequent accompaniment of this psychical awakening is the perception of the infinitude of the world-order, and a sense of humility and depend- ence on it. It appears that the deeper instinctive life is almost invariably carried up to the higher level ; the spiritual life is nearly always described in terms of ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 329 sense and of natural human relationships. One ' listens to God's voice in the depths of spirit.' Another's relationship to God is that of a son to a father; he carries into it the demands for kinship and intimacy. These things seem to indicate that the lower mental activities have been carried up into the higher complex. The evidence that this condition obtains is found only in its aptness in bringing unity into the diversity of pheno- mena. If one follows the development of religious feeling in its process of- formation from youth toward maturity, the theory is reduced almost to a certainty. An experi- ence which is especially true for later adolescence and earlier maturity is that of yearning after the higher life, a striving after the life of spirit. It is the condition which we have noticed heretofore in which the different regions of the association-tracts in the brain are begin- ning to function, but function separately, which results in the feeling of incompleteness. The striving after the higher life is the struggle after a complete co-ordination of all the nerve elements on the higher level. A woman in whom not only her years but the character of her experience indicates an adolescent case, says : ' I yearn to realise more of the infinite.' Another woman, who is a very busy teacher, writes : ' I never seem to get up the lively experience I strive for ; I have more need of contemplation, devotion and prayer.' A girl of 18 says : ' Sometimes when rushed at school I do not think of God enough, and that is bad for me ; then I go to Him and He comforts me.' The two latter experiences seem to be those of persons who are ripe for the fuller co- ordination of the higher brain areas, but in whom the rush and hurry of work and activity prevents its com- plete fruition. Still further back in the process is the experience of a girl of 17 : 'I have no heightened ex- periences, and cannot understand why people in books have them.' Again, a little further on the side towards complete success, is the case of a man of 26 who says : ' I am emerging into a distinctly positive stage ; I have 330 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION developed into the conviction of the essential religious nature of every human feeling, and have whole-souled sympathy for diverse humanity.' In this instance the manifoldness of the normal human activities and feelings has begun to be synthesised. This point of view helps to explain, perhaps, a case like the following of a woman of 26, who has already passed the normal time for spiritual awakening without complete success, and in whom the breach between the lower and higher levels is considerable, with the result that the two function separately. There is a constant irritation resulting from the separate functioning of the higher and lower centres, and from an organic craving for their unity. She says : ' I always try to speak kindly to others ; I try to do those things that would please God ; I have often struggled in prayer to know God's will. What troubles my conscience is that I do not take religion seriously enough. It is not so serious an affair with me as with most people. I often feel nearer to God and have a sense that He loves me better, after a cry. over my sins: I like everybody and everything better after- wards.' The anomaly of not taking religion seriously enough and of crying over her sins seems to be the normal accompaniment of the physiological condition described. When the co-ordination has become com- plete, and one's whole being is reduced to a unity, when the deeper instincts express themselves freely, then we have an entirely different state of feeling ; there is a sense of living within the spiritual sphere. One person says : ' It seems to me that spirit talks to me.' We have cases like the above in which the ' soul feels itself alone with God, and listens to His voice in the depths of spirit,' or in which one feels the 'personality of Jesus as life, force and divinity.' This condition in its extremer forms is the one that is so often described in the lives of the mystics : one's consciousness is entirely absorbed in the all- sufficiency of the love of God that expresses itself through human personality. It is a condition that ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 331 often develops into a pathological tendency. The person falls into the bottomless sea of instinct and seems to lose all connection with the world of sense. An instance of this in which there is apparently at least a close approach to abnormality is the following of a woman of 47 : 'I believe in the circulation of mind through corporate humanity as practically as I believe in the circulation of blood through the corporeal man. The sweet peace that follows the undefinable and un- utterable waves of sorrow that bruise the spirit assures me that a breach has been repaired, an offence con- doned, a sin blotted out, a balance adjusted for the common weal. Deep calleth unto deep. While man sins man must redeem. The bugbear of orthodoxy has long since- vanished beyond the searchlight " I am." God is still creator. ... I would abide with the saints, I would go in and out of human hearts and sup with those I love. I would rear again the human temple and live the life of a world's conqueror. I would reveal the things unseen and unconceived to the lovers of God.' This case is analogous to the ex- treme sanctification experiences in which life has become completely organised from the standpoint of the higher brain areas, but has been partially cut off from its contact with the lower. Having pointed out the extremes in the possible relationship existing between the higher and lower areas — that on the one hand, in which the higher have never been aroused, and that, on the other hand, in which the higher have become over-developed, and have partially lost their connection with the lower — it is a matter of individual opinion to decide what is the mean between them which represents a normal condition. The relative prominence of the more characteristic types of feeling is shown in Table XXIX. The figures represent in percentages of the whole number of persons those who experienced the various feelings at the time of making the records. They stand in the table in the order of frequency. 332 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 'Feelings. Female. Male. Per Cent. Per Cent. Dependence 27 36 Reverence 25 37 Oneness with God, Christ, etc. 27 29 Faith 17 23 Blessedness 13 13 Peace 7 4 Unclassified 14 20 None 5 t Table XXIX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of religious feelings. The sense of dependence, humility, etc., stands at ;the head. This furnishes a partial justification for the tendency in vogue since Schleiermacher to define religion in terms of the sense of dependence and freedom. The freedom side of the definition, however, seldom finds corroboration in the records before us, at least not explicitly. If one were setting out to define religion, it would have to be borne in rriind that several other feelings are about as prominent as dependence. The percentages in the column for males are larger than those for females. This may be taken to signify that men are more given to religious feelings than women. The inference is only true in part. The feelings of the men are more numerous and more ex- plicit ; they are more clearly stated and the attempt to organise them was attended with far less difficulty and uncertainty. The real explanation of the differ- ence is to be found in the distinction tersely stated by Mr Coe that ' women feel more, while men feel more intensely.' We shall next inquire into any evidences which show the line of growth from childhood towards maturity. A partial answer to the question is found by comparing Table XVIII. on page 192, which repre- sents some facts of childhood religion, with the one above. Reverence, which almost never appears in ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 333 childhood religion, stands almost at the head in adult life. The sense of oneness with God or Christ and trust are prominent in both tables. Peace and spiritual exultation are also frequent later, but seldom occur during childhood. Dependence and humility in adult life appear to correspond somewhat to credulity and the tendency among children to use God for their own personal ends. Comparison of the two tables seems to show that the constant elements from childhood to maturity are dependence and the sense of oneness and faith. Fear is transformed, perhaps, into reverence, into which the childish familiarity with God is also changed. Peace and joy would appear to follow naturally on the unrest of adolescence. Spiritual exaltation among the adults, which presupposes a considerable degree of mental development, could not have been present in childhood. Only a small part of that group of feelings termed reverence, gratitude and love consisted of love which had any definite object. The spiritual attach- ments which are classed by the respondents as religious have apparently become so complex and abstract that they take the form of contemplation and reverence. The line of growth in regard to feeling was further studied by separating the cases into age-groups and comparing the prominence of the different types of feelings among those groups. The feelings which show the most distinct increase with age are dependence, reverence, oneness with God, and faith. The increase of the sense of dependence, for example, is represented in the following series of figures, which are the percentages of the persons in each age-group who describe their religious attitude in terms of this feeling : — 13 27 27 33 SO The advance with years among the men is not so clearly marked. It should be noted of these four groups of feelings which tend to increase during mature life that three of them, namely, dependence, sense of oneness, and faith, are those which were carried over from childhood. The fourth one, reverence, also has its 334 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION counterpart then in the sense of fear, the former being apparently the irradiation into a more spiritualised form of the latter. It is safe to say, provided the cases we are studying are typical, that the line along which religion grows, when represented in terms of feeling, is expressed as dependence, reverence, sense of oneness with God, and faith. These feelings represent the religious attitude which is not only carried over from childhood to maturity, but which increases with advancing years. They all express relation between the self and the larger life outside. This bears out the conclusions reached in the last chapter while discussing the nature of religious beliefs ; both feelings and beliefs indicate that the bottom truth of religion is that which centres about the relationship of the human being with God. It is a fact of no little interest that the number of religious feelings expressed increases in a marked way with age. Their frequency in each age-group is shown in the following diagram : — Age — 16-19 20-24 25-29 30-40 40 and over. Female 96 126 163 131 205 Male 65 16S I7S 191 During late adolescence it is evident that the number is relatively very small. About the end of adolescence they have increased, however, to almost the highest , point reached, which is in the year-group from 40 years and over. Thus, in terms of feeling, we find a definite transition-period at the end of adolescence. It is explainable by the fact that later adolescence is the nascent period for readjustments. By summing up the number of beliefs expressed in Table XXVIII. on p. 320, it is evident that the number of beliefs among the later adolescents is nearly as great as that during any of the years following. Among the males, the number of beliefs between 20 and 25 is even greater than the number between 25 and 30, which exactly contradicts the line of growth in feeling. While the number of feelings increase from 95 to 165, the number of beliefs decrease ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 335 in about the same ratio. This point at which the transition occurs coincides with that which was desig- nated as the age of reconstruction, and marks the transition from a rational point of view of the world to a life of action. Adolescence is a period, as has been noticed, of great instability and uncertainty. A new personality is just beginning to take shape and form habits of its own. Now, at this later period, its point of view has become established and the person begins to live. Accompanying this change there naturally arise those feelings which express an attitude which has already become vital to the person. The fact that dur- ing adolescence there are comparatively few specific religious feelings expressed does not necessarily mean that in some form they are not present; a truer interpretation, doubtless, is that not until as late as the period of reconstruction do they become differentiated and separated from one another out of the organic mass of feeling that is surging up during youth, and take shape as specific, distinct feelings. Adolescence is an intensely formative period, and life does not take on its peculiar character until, say, the 25 th year. When the four most dominant types of religious feeling are taken separately from the others and considered together, the peculiarities just noticed come out even more distinctly. There is a tendency for them either to culminate in frequency between the years 25 and 30, or to rise at that period to as great prominence as during any of the later years. They rise to the greatest prominence during these years of greatest human vitality. The groups of feelings represented as joy, spiritual exaltation and peace, on the contrary, tend to culminate during the earlier and the later years. This bears out the conclusion that those four types of feeling which stood out above the rest are the ones which more distinctly belong to human life at its best. The number of persons in the doubt and reconstruc- tion group who recorded specific feelings was greater 336 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION than that of the gradual-growlh group by as much as the ratio of lo to 7. This would seem to show that with those whose rehgion has once become partially objective and faith has been reconstructed, religion is fully as vital as with those whose growth has been uneventful. CHAPTER XXVII ADULT LIFE — MOTIVES AND PURPOSES The question was asked, ' What would you now be and do if you realised all your ideals of the higher life ? ' The replies were full and apparently given with the greatest frankness. In the organisation of the motives and purposes which inspire mature persons, we may hope to arrive at the most accurate picture, provided the respondents have been both honest and frank, of the trend of life from childhood toward maturity, and of the point or points toward which it is moving. In bringing the ideals together, they fall into several more or less distinct headings. These, in turn, seem to show in one way or another three great tendencies in growth. In the first place, there are those motives and purposes which have for their end the perfection and enlargement of the individual life, and which express the growth instincts that make for self-enlargement. Secondly, there are those motives, the purpose of which is to curb the individual life, and which express the tendency to hold in check the egoistic impulses that bring the individual out of harmony with social life. In the third place, there are the purposes that centre in the life outside of the self; they are the social and altruistic impulses, and grow out of the recognition of the fact that the self is only a small part of the larger whole, and that the individual will must be given up to subserve the interest ot the organism of which it is a part. The present chapter will be devoted to a simple elucidation of those three classes of motives, the rela- Y 338 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION tionship they sustain among themselves, and their sig- nificance in religious development. The egoistic impulses show themselves in several different ways. The most prominent of these is the ideal of self-perfection, which seems to centre in the biological instinct of realisation of the fullest life. The way this shows itself is tersely illustrated in the following quotations : F. ' Where once I said, " I want to be good," I now say, " I want to develop, to improve, to grow strong." ' F. ' My one motive is to grow, not especially spiritually, but every way.' F. ' I would live an honest, upright, beautiful, sincere life.' M. ' I would build up a pure and unselfish character.' M. ' I would lead such an open life that everybody would understand it, and it would be so pure and true that all who saw it would want to be like it.' The central thing in these impulses is that an ideal has been established, and that growth toward it has become an end in itself A motive that is closely akin to the last is self- expression. Back of it is pleasure in activity. One gets the best glimpse of this impulse in the uncouth and naive form in which some of the young girls express it. One says : ' My ideal is to be a woman of 30, beauti- ful in form and feature ; to have wonderful power with my voice; to be very rich, and use all my wealth for doing good.' Another says : ' If I realised my highest ideal, I would write a book like Thomas a Kempis or Helen Hunt's Ramona! Among the older persons this same impulse is found, but in a more refined form, and usually mingled with other motives. One man says : ' I would have a wide sphere of influence, provided the influ- ence be for good ; I desire to be loved, but am willing to be hated.' A woman writes: 'If I realised my ideal, it would be nothing radically different ; I would be a better wife and mother, I would be a tower of strength to the discouraged and suffering about me, and an inspiration to my friends to live a better life.' The pleasure in doing and achieving is certainly one of the deepest instincts of human life. It is the same impulse ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 339 that one sees in the play instincts of animals and in the manifold activities of human beings, in which the activity is not directed toward a definite end, but is an outlet of the over-supply of stored-up energy. In the religious sphere one finds the same instinct present, but expending itself in the direction of spiritual ends. Another motive somewhat like the last two is the impulse to know. A single sentence taken from each of several cases will be sufficient to illustrate this im- pulse. 'My ideal is to ascertain truth.' ' I am striving to ground my faith on known laws.' ' I would find all possible knowledge.' ' A love of knowledge and a passionate zeal for right are central in my life.' ' My highest purpose is to know nature, to be true to it, and to utilise it' Such instances occur most frequently between the years 20 and 25. It is natural that this should come at the most formative period of the rational life. In this respect the present group bears a close similarity to the one just above. That was an expression of the pleasure of activity in a general way, while underneath the impulse to know is the pleasure in self-expression along the intellectual line. This differs from the last, too, in being ego-centric. The last two expressed the expenditure of energy without being actuated by personal advantage, while the impulse to know represents the instinct to make conquest of the world and work it over as an individual possession. It is a psychical instinct which is analogous on the physiological side to the food-getting instinct. This ends that class of impulses which tend toward the enlargement of self It is a fact of considerable significance that almost never is a distinctly ego-centric impulse mentioned as a religious motive. The nearest approach to it is the pleasure in intellectual conquest of the world noted above. There are, to be sure, two or three solitary instances of impulses in which the advantage of the individual seems to be the spring of action ; for ex- ample, a woman says : ' My one thought is to lead my 340 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION children aright, and to be joined hereafter to those who have gone on before.' There is but one other instance in which the desire for future happiness — a selfish im- pulse put off a little into the future — is acknowledged as a religious motive. One other person says : ' I would live so that people would think of me as having helped other people.' The fewness of instances of this sort is so conspicuous that it emphasises the fact that imme- diate personal ends are almost never present as a religious ideal. The counterpart of the general class of motives just described are those which tend to the curbing of the egoistic impulses. They imply that certain ones in the complex of self-assertive instincts have become disproportionate to the rest, and demand being held in check. They show the necessity of lopping off and plucking out exaggerated and harmful tendencies of self-activity which make the highest personal or social perfection impossible. The person has gained the power of standing outside his life and judging it ; of feeling within himself the strong, racial impulses that are likely to rupture the unity of his own being. These motives are shown in the craving for meekness, patience, sobriety, justice, honesty, cheerfulness, per- sonal purity and self-control. They are the ones most frequently mentioned. A number of them are shown together in the following instance of a man of 22, who says : ' My highest purpose is to overcome the imper- fections of youth, to renounce worldly ambition. I have an ardent desire to be pure, and to attain a common-sense, patient and self-sacrificing life. I have now a chance to become rich, but it would mean spiritual death.' The demand for curbing egoistic instincts in one way or another works itself over into the abstract ideal of self-abnegation. In its extreme form this ideal is that expressed in the ascetic severities that at one time were regarded as among the highest virtues. It is sometimes expressed in religious songs, as, for example : ' Oh, to ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 341 be nothing, nothing, only to lie at His feet ! ' In the records before us the ideal of self-abnegation is not found in any instance in which it is held entirely apart from that of self-perfection or of helpfulness to others. The following extracts will illustrate : F. ' I would forget self entirely and spend my life in an unobtrusive way, in order to make the world better.' F. ' I would give up everything for others, and not count anything dear for the sake of doing good.' M. ' My highest purpose is the utter abandonment of self for the welfare of others.' The way in which this be- comes an instinct, and tends to establish itself as an abstract ideal, is illustrated in the case of a woman who writes : ' If I could only love my neighbour as myself! But that is a long way off, I fear.' This illustrates the impulse reduced to the second power. There is not so much a desire to help others as there is a desire for the desire. One source of this detached motive is doubt- less to be found in the fact that society sets certain standards of conduct, and so awakens the impulse in the individual to attain those standards before he has come upon them spontaneously himself This fact explains frequently recurring instances like the follow- ing : ' If I could attain my ideal, it would be to have a stronger desire to save souls for Christ.' This leads us to consider the third large group of motives, those in which the end of conduct is found in society and in the spiritual life of which the person is a part. The transition to this point of view shows itself in three groups of ideals. In the first place, there are the motives in which the social instinct is especially strong and in which the end is the welfare of society rather than of the individual. They take shape in some form of helpfulness to others. F. ' My ideal would be realised by a person who could be described by the one word unselfish! F. ' I would bring great happiness to all with whom I am brought in contact' F. ' I would like to do favours for people, even those I do not care for.' M. ' My highest desire 342 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION is to make others happy by administering to their needs.' M. ' My chief purpose is to work with God to bring it about that " good may fall at last to all." ' The same impulse in a more abstract and spiritual- ised form is expressed as the love and service of God. This is shown in such sentences as these : ' I would think of God and do good for His glory.' ' My one purpose is to do what God desires.' ' I have a deep desire to promote God's work.' ' My ideal is to love God and serve Him better.' These last two groups of motives are different from the self-perfection and self- expression ones in that they seek a more specific object, which object is found outside of immediate personal interests. Another impulse which likewise centres outside the limits of self is the desire for oneness with God. F. ' I would grow nearer God by every thought and action.' F. ' My chief purpose is to find God in every part of His universe.' M. 'I would get more and more in harmony with God's laws.' M. ' My desire is to fulfil God's purpose in me as a child of His.' Underlying this is the instinct for companionship. The same thing seems to underlie, although in an unexpressed form, the desire to help others ; these all seem to have their birth in the awakening of the social instinct. The relative prominence of some of these groups of motives is shown in Table XXX. The numbers represent the per cent, of all the persons giving ideals who mention the various ones. Foremost in frequency of all the ideals is helpful- ness to others ; it is mentioned nearly twice as often as any other one. For the sake of comparison, we shall combine the motives helpfulness to others, oneness with God and service of God, and call them for convenience the altruistic group. We shall likewise combine those ideals which centre about self-perfection, self-expression and the desire for knowledge, and call them the self- enlargement group. It is evident that the former class somewhat exceeds the latter numerically. To the ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 343 altruistic may fairly be added also those whose object is the curbing of self, since that is one of the clearest conditions of transferring the centre of interest from the self to the life outside of it. The inference is accordingly that the altruistic group of motives is a far more powerful factor in adult life than the ideal of self-enlargement, which perhaps arose earlier in racial development. Ideals. Females. Males. Helpfulness to Others 65 52 - Harmony with God 20 19 To Love and Serve God 18 9 Christ 14 18 Self-perfection 32 41 Self-expression 10 11 To know 6 16 .Self-interest 3 14 / Self-abnegation 20 13 \ Specific Virtues . 34 30 Altruistic Group 103 80 Self-enlargement Group ..... 51 82 Regulative Group (Self-abnegation and Specific Virtues) 54 43 Table XXX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of certain religious ideals. It would be unfair to say that the trend of life is simply away from the self-enlargement motives towards the altruistic. As a matter of fact, the evidence is pretty clear that both the self-enlargement and altruistic groups increase with years. If we separate the cases into age-groups, as we have been accustomed to do heretofore, the frequency of the two classes of motives in the different years is shown in the following diagram : — Age — 16-19 Self-perfection, F. . . 29 M. . . o Altruistic, F. . . 87 M. . . o 20-24 25-30 35-40 40 and over. 33 44 53 55 71 28 65 42 117 94 116 140 81 83 59 53 344 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION In the case of women there is clearly an advance with years in respect to both types of motives. They appear to be supplementary ideals that run parallel. As the years advance, life is given over more and more not only to doing more but to being more ; it increases in fulness itself, and progressively enters into fuller and fuller relationship with the life outside of it. It is noticeable that both groups of motives decrease among the men with years ; the same thing we found to be true in regard to the number of religious feelings expressed by them. The explanation of this seems to be that the ideals among the males are more keenly appreciated, and consequently more often recorded, during the earlier years than during the later. During the twenties, when these instincts are being awakened and becoming worked over into the personality as part of it, they have greater worth to consciousness than after they have become habitual. That the incre- ment is more constant among women is in line with what we have noticed repeatedly that they develop later on the spiritual side than do men in those respects which concern their conscious activity, and that they are furthermore more constant and even in their line of development than men. The point to be noticed in this connection is that the altruistic motives are more frequent in each instance than are the self-enlargement motives, and if we should take the women as a type, both the groups of ideals increase constantly with years. There are some lines of evidence which seem con- clusive that the trend of life is more and more towards altruism. In the record of childhood faults — records which are pretty fully given by the respondents — selfish- ness is greater than any other item among the girls and stands second among the boys. Taking allthe faults which may be classed as distinctly egoistic, such as jealousy, anger, covetousness, pride, stealing, and the like, we find them to foot up 70 per cent, among the girls and 72 per cent, among the boys of all the child- hood faults mentioned. While these faults do not re- ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 34S present the religious cast of childhood, they nevertheless show those propensities which are strong, and away from which growth tends. If we notice among the adult motives the prominence of those which centre about the curbing of these same egocentric propensities, and that in only about 3J per cent, of the cases does self-interest in any form appear ; if we notice further that the most prominent group of motives in adult life is the altruistic, it shows conclusively that from childhood to maturity the trend of life has been per- sistently away from the self-assertive, egocentric instincts towards those which are society-centered and God-centered. ■Another evidence that this is the common trend is found in the frequency in individual records with which there is a definite struggle to attain a life in which self- interest shall be swallowed up in the life of the whole. We find persons, especially in the younger years, hammer- ing away in one way or another at the limits which shut the personality in, and trying to break over them and escape. One young woman of 20 says : ' I would like to be good and true through and through ; with purer motives, and thinking only of God and doing good for His glory. I wish I were not conceited. I should Hke never to think of self at all. I should like to be a foreign missionary.' A woman of 74, who had been actuated during earlier life by the ideal of self- perfection, says of her later development, which came when she was 43 : ' I got out of the prison of self, and took my stand in the objective universe.' She further writes, speaking of her purposes : ' I would work out the welfare of the race, not with fear and trembling, but with serene hope and assurance.' A woman of 22 says : ' I would receive every trouble, disappointment, pain and temptation as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self and of entering into fuller, fellowship with my self-denying, suffering Saviour. I would recognise with delight all generous, beautiful actions, and all good qualities, even of my bitterest opponents.' This statement bears in it the evidence 346 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION of a previous struggle to break down the limitations of self. Christ, to her mind, who clearly represents her ideal of attainment, is pictured as a self-denying, suffering Saviour. In the desire to recognise the good qualities of her bitterest opponents there is evidence that a barrier has been surmounted, and with no little diffi- culty, and that this has carried her life on to a con- siderable distance in the direction it has come. Sure enough, when we come to examine the case, we find it to be a person whose life during earlier years had been filled with intense struggles. She says : ' They grew out of selfishness and jealousy. Nature had favoured my sisters with powers and attainments which excelled my own ; this aroused in me most bitter feelings against God and His injustice to me. I became unruly and unlovable. I finally realised that I needed more than human help ; it drew me to seek peace in the religious life. My real change of character began when I was i6. I took a class in Sunday school, sang in the choir, and set up ideals and made great struggles to live up to them.' While there are many instances in the records before us of growth away from the self-perfection ideal towards the altruistic, there are no accounts of a development in the opposite direction. It is safe to lay it down with a high degree of emphasis that in this growth from that class of motives which centre in self towards those which find their spring of action in the organised life outside of the self, we have one of the most fundamental lines of development. Usually we find them existing side by side, as in the following instance, recorded by a woman of 38 : 'I would be just myself, only with more patience, less selfishness, greater sense of God's friendliness to me, and arrive at the true union of the service of God and man.' One sees in this case the fusion of the self- enlargement, self-abnegation, and altruistic motives. The ideal striven after is often found in a person whose life is admired. A girl writes : ' If I realised my ideal, I would be just like my mother, making everyone ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 347 happy, and doing all for the glory of God.' The per- sonality of Christ is frequently the embodiment of the ideal. F. ' My highest aim is to follow Christ's teach- ing.' F. ' I am trying to follow Christ's life as nearly as I can in all its glorious self-abnegation, its wondrous purity, and marvellous helpfulness.' M. ' I have no definite ideal aside from Christ' This type bears close kinship both to the self-expression group of motives and to those which strive after oneness with God. If we glance at the growth from childhood to youth and on through maturity, we find in it a constant element running throughout, namely, that factor which is the outgrowth of the deep-seated racial instinct of self-preservation. In childhood we find a propensity for self-assertion and self-indulgence ; among the child- hood faults which were mentioned these were frequent. Sexual temptations stand first among the evils from which the boys have grown and are striving still to free themselves. Other forms of faults of this type are drinking, stubbornness, sauciness, lying, wilfulness, re- vengefulness and ill-temper. These are all branches running out this way and that from the instincts of self-preservation, self-defence and self-enlargement. In mature life we find these transformed and spiritualised into the impulse to be all that it is in one's power to become as a spiritual being ; to exercise one's fullest power ; to conquer and work over into one's own life the most possible of the intellectual and spiritual worlds. We find that the impulse towards self-expression, thus spiritualised and transformed into a religious motive, not only persists through the rest of life, but even increases. This, then, seems to be one of the great streams of religious development, to give those deeper racial instincts which are consistent with self-development and the development of society the fullest possible expres- sion, and gradually to transform, and enlarge them into spiritual forces. Running parallel with this is another line of growth which is likewise constant throughout life ; indeed it is 348 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION not only the accompaniment, but the very condition of the tendency we have just noticed. // is the exercise of the curbing or regulative impulse, which keeps the egoistic instincts within their proper range and in harmonious relationships with each other. The fact that the egoistic impulses in childhood, when over emphasised, are de- scribed as faults, shows that they are that away from which growth tends. In most instances the way in which and the time at which these were set aside is given by the respondents. The prevalence of the ' sense of sin ' during adolescence, occurring as it does in the majority of the cases, whether there has been actual waywardness or not, is doubtless a complex of the same impulse. All the little imperfections are asserting themselves, and are felt as an organic tend- ency. Along with the dawning of rational and spiritual insight one gains the power to look back on these, and to feel a higher life, which can only be attained by the overcoming and crushing out of the complex of tend- encies that make up the imperfect self So that, in a very true sense, the whole adolescent stress may be viewed as a clash between the higher and lower selves in which the crisis is brought about through the activity of this curbing and regulative impulse. We have found that this continues throughout adult life, and expresses itself in many virtues, such as patience, honesty, purity, self-control, and the like, each of which becomes trans- parent, and shows beneath it some impulse trying to assert itself During maturity this motive becomes complex and refined, and is shown in the abstract ideal of self-abnegation. Mr Marshall, in his analysis of re- ligion from the biological standpoint, arrives at a similar conclusion in regard to this element of religion. He says : ' The function of religion which lies back of its ceremonial is the suppression of the force of individual- istic, elemental impulses in favour of those which have higher significance.' ' Again he says : ' It will appear ^ Henry Rutgers Marshall, Instinct and Reason, New York and London, 1898, p. 297. ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 349 upon examination that the various groups of religious expression which we shall examine tend to produce the suppression of individualistic reaction, and lead us to listen for the guiding voices within us.' That direction of religious development first noticed above, which concerns the transition from the egoistic point of view to that which regards the life outside as the centre of activity, is in reality simply a transition from youth to adult life ; it represents the second great step in the line of growth from childhood towards maturity. In order to complete the picture, it should be borne in mind that the central fact which marked the tran- sition from childhood was the birth of religious self-con- sciousness, a necessary step in the acquisition of the ability to refer spiritual experiences to the ego, and to appreciate religion from within. Back of this was the life of child- hood, in which the world was looked upon purely as an external fact ; there was not yet the ability to appreciate the self as even a factor in its own experiences. This has become one of the most commonly recognised facts in regard to childhood experience. Miss Miles, for example, in her study of reminiscent experiences, says : ' The predominant direction of the mind of the child is shown by the fact that 70 show attention to the outside world, and only 27 to self. Even when the child thinks of himself, he is more apt to regard himself as a victim of sensation than as an agent in bringing things to pass.' 1 In our study of the religion of childhood, it was evident that the child's religious experiences were viewed as objective. God was a being external to itself and above it, dwelling in the sky. The most pro- nounced feature of its religion was that which involved its relationship to this Being, expressed usually in- the most concrete and objective terms. The most marked characteristic of adolescence, on the contrary, was the breaking away from religion as something external. New life wells up within the consciousness of the youth, ' Miss Caroline Miles, 'A Study in Individual Psychology,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VI., p. 554. 3SO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION and this either surges above the threshold of conscious- ness as a clearly appreciated spiritual product, or makes itself felt as opposing currents of life in the undefined sphere of feeling. Out of it all is born the clear con- sciousness of a self which is an organ for the expression of spiritual life. And now comes the third step, which we have already noticed, in which the person's consciousness of the world-order is aroused, and he appreciates the relationships existing between part and part — feels that his own personality is only a small fraction of the larger life. He transfers the centre of his activity to the life of the whole. His most prominent motive is to live in the lives of other persons, and to lose his life in love and service, in unison with God. There are, consequently, in this aspect of religious growth, three great steps in development : — First, that in which religion is viewed externally ; secondly, that in which the centre of activity is one's own personality ; and thirdly, that in which the centre of activity again becomes objective. The growing individual tends to obtain a knowledge of himself as a spiritual personality, and to gain control of himself as a unit in society, and then to give himself back again as an organic part of the world-life. PART III COMPARISON OF THE LINES OF GROWTH WITH AND WITHOUT CONVERSION CHAPTER XXVIII THE LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION We finally require to bring together the most salient facts and principles adduced in the foregoing chapters, and see them in their relationships. Before doing this, we shall turn to a brief survey of the later development of those persons who have experienced conversion. The conclusions already reached will be either verified or limited as laws of growth of universal application by what we find true in regard to this other class of persons. When we have ascertained the likenesses and differences between these two types of religious growth, we shall be able to turn with somewhat fuller knowledge to a con- cise statement of the line of development from childhood toward maturity. In taking up the study of those lines of growth which persons pass through after conversion, we shall hope not only to arrive at a more complete compre- hension of the trends of religious development, but shall, at the same time, have a means of determining more adequately than was possible in the analysis of the crisis itself, the nature of conversion. We shall apply to it this test. What is the effect of conversion on after-development ? What new factors are turned loose in consciousness which vary the line of growth from that through which persons seem to pass whose development has been more gradual ? For example, are these persons freed from the storm and stress, struggle, anxiety and doubt that so frequently attend the progress of those whom we have just been studying? Toward 7. 354 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION the end of individual development, do they come out with the same general attitude toward life, and with a similar appreciation of spiritual things ? In the comparison of the two groups there are some conclusions that we can safely leave behind us as fairly well established. We have found that conversion, viewed simply from the standpoint of its immediate significance, was in no sense a unique phenomenon, but that, in its most essential aspect, it was a sudden outburst of religious life and awakening to spiritual insight. It has its correspondence in gradual growth. The character of the experiences in the one group and in the other shade off into each other by imperceptible gradations, and correspond in the time at which they occur. The sense of sin and that of imperfection we have found to attach themselves to no theological doctrine, but to be the natural outgrowth of the developmental processes which are going on during adolescence. The result which seemed to be attained in conversion, and that which was working itself out during adolescence among those persons who have not experienced conversion are at bottom essentially the same, namely, the birth of human consciousness on a higher spiritual level. This is attended by the awaken- ing of a fuller and keener self-consciousness, and at the same time, by the birth of a social instinct, which leads the person to reach out and feel his life one with that of the larger social, institutional and spiritual worlds. With these likenesses in view, the question narrows itself down mainly to this. To what extent is the result which seems to be reflected in conversion fully reached ? Is it simply the opening-up of an ideal that has to be actualised — a vivid foretaste of a life that may become one's own — or does the person actually attain the new life at the instant of conversion, and immediately begin living on an indefinitely higher plane of existence? Unfortunately, the persons whose experiences we studied in Part I. were not asked for their post-conver- sion development. However, Miss Fannie E. Johnston, a student in my semmary, has brought together one LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 355 hundred autobiographies of persons who have experi- enced conversion, and has made, under my direction, a special investigation of the h'ne of post-conversion growth. The records were written in response to a special list of questions which call out in considerable detail the experiences at conversion, those immediately following, and the development since conversion. The cases used are in most respects comparable to those used in the study of conversion itself in Part L ; they are usually persons reared in favourable religious surround- ings, and are well distributed as to vocation and condition in life. Just as in the groups we have already studied, there are rather too many college-bred people among the number for them to be entirely representative. There is this single marked difference, that of the cases we are now studying, somewhat more than one-half belong to the Methodist denomination ; as for the remainder, there is a good sprinkling of nearly all of the other Protestant sects. The nature of the conversion phenomena themselves in these cases does not differ in any respect which demands special consideration from those which furnished the basis of the study of conversion in Part I. The persons usually experienced at conversion the same sense of joy, peace and contentment as did those we have studied heretofore. After conversion they almost invariably set out with new and high resolves ; their attitude towards life had been transformed ; in the presence of the new life old habits had apparently passed away, new interests and enthusiasms had been awakened ; motives and purposes had been purified, higher ideals aroused ; frequently the personality seemed entirely changed. But when we follow up the events which mark the trend of life after conversion, the crucial question we have just raised is almost directly answered, for we find that nearly all the persons are sooner or later beset with the same difficulties that ordinarily attend adolescent development. Indeed, the percentage of those diffi- culties in this group of persons is slightly greater than 356 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION in the case of those whose growth was not attended by conversion. While in this latter group there were 80 per cent, of the women and 89 per cent, of the men who had storm and stress or doubt, in the cases we are now studying there are 93 per cent, of the women and "jj per cent, of the men who had similar experiences. The immediate conclusion which might be drawn from these statistics is that conversion fails of its purpose, and has no marked effect on after-development. Before we settle on an interpretation, however, of its significance, we must look more minutely at the nature of the experi- ences which follow conversion, as compared with those which occur under other conditions. We must likewise take into consideration that we are dealing with a class of persons who are temperamentally different. We have found that they are more susceptible to external in- fluences, and more impressionable by suggestion. Con- sequently, we have to keep constantly before our minds the question as to how these persons would have developed in the absence of conversion — presumably they would naturally have shown greater irregularities than would those who were less open to impressions. If we proceed to consider the nature of the struggles which follow conversion, we find at the same time many similarities and many differences between these and the usual adolescent difficulties. In Table XXXI. are shown some of the types of the post-conversion struggles, together with the percentages of their frequency in each of the sexes. In the first place, we should notice that complete relapses are few, whereas periods of inactivity and in- difference are numerous ; in fact, with women, these latter are the rule. Those experiences classed in the table as relapses correspond fairly to complete alienation in the cases studied in Part II., whom we shall, for con- venience, call the non-conversion group. They represent the tendency for persons to feel themselves aloof from the religious interests of other people. If we recall the fact that more than a third of the non- conversion cases LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 357 have passed through a more or less definite period of alienation, and note that only about 6 per cent, of the conversion group have completely relapsed, we have one of the most important differences between the two types. While the religious difficulties which follow con- version are rather more frequent than those which other- wise accampany adolescent growth, the instances are far less numerous among the conversion-group of complete alienation from conventional standards. In other words, the persons who have passed through conversion, having once taken a stand for the religious life, tend to feel themselves identified with it, no matter how much their religious enthusiasm declines. Post-Conversion Struggles. Females. Males. Per Cent. Per Cent. I. Complete Relapses .... 5 7 2. Periods of Inactivity and Indifference . 65 30 3. Struggles with Old Habits . 26 32 4. Struggles to Attain an Ideal . 33 IS 5. Storm and Stress 38 35 6, Storm and Stress, including 3 and 4 without duplication .... 80 62 7. Doubts 38 57 8. Any of above without duplication 1 — 93 77 Table XXXI.- -Showing the frequency and nature of i striLggles. '■ post-conversion The periods of inactivity and indifference seem to be the outgrowth of a natural tendency of human interests to ebb and flow. • Nervous energy, when directed vigor- ously in a certain way, completely expends itself, and must then have a period of recuperation. Rhythms in the supply of available energy are coming to be a universally recognised phenomenon, If, with the proper apparatus, one tries continuously to lift a weight with one finger at successive intervals of a second, one can lift it to a less and less distance, until finally it cannot be lifted at all. But suddenly the ability to perform the 3S8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION work is almost fully regained, and it continues to come and go at intervals. The same fluctuations are true in regard to the higher mental activities. One of the stock experiments on fluctuations of the attention illustrates in a concrete way the general principle. Ifa watch is placed at such a distance that the ticking can just be heard with strained attention, the sound of the ticking comes and goes with rhythmical regularity. The commonly accepted explanation is that the nerve-cells involved in the act of attention must have time to recuperate. ' When a cell has exploded, it must have time to recover ; it cannot explode again until it has been recharged. That is why attention is interrupted, why we can attend only for a few seconds at a time. The spurts of the attention-wave correspond to the successive discharges of cortical cells.' ' In this instance we have a specific illustration of what is true for any sort of mental activity. Spells of depression are likely to come at the close of a very busy day. With the breaking of a fever the physician has to guard against a sudden variation to the opposite extreme. In these well-known facts we have doubt- less a parallel to the variation in religious feeling. Almost invariably the subjects who are active in religious work have ups and downs in their degree of religious enthusiasm. One of them seems to have had for several years wave-like fluctuations of religious interest at pretty regular intervals of two years. Another, a woman of 40, writes : ' My religious ex- perience has been a succession of waves or pulsations following each other in quite regular order. Indif- ference and inactivity are always followed by self- examination. At such times disgust is stronger than regret. Then follows the effort to regain the lost ground, and as a result arise renewed enthusiasm, heightened activity, and fresh devotion to religious work. But it seems impossible to hold myself to the high-tide mark.' In her personal attachments this person shows the same ' E. B.Titchener, A Primer of Psychology, p. 91, New York, 1898. LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 359 fluctuations as in her religious attitude. One is doubt- less to look for the explanation of such instances as the following in the rhythms in the supply of nervous energy. A woman who had been converted at 14, who had before conversion had struggles with an ' uncon- trollable temper,' and at the time of conversion wept and felt very joyous, says of her later development : ' I had a period of introspection at 17 caused by over- enthusiasm. Religion was on my mind so constantly that my nervous system gave way. I had a feeling of despair, and longed to die.' It is the rule, and to be expected that after the great enthusiasm of conversion there should follow a decline. The duration of the enthusiasm and the period of the ebb of feeling vary greatly with different individuals. This seems to be conditioned by the nervous constitu- tion of different persons. It has been found by experi- ment that scarcely two persons have the same fatigue curve. .Some are exhausted quickly with slight ex- penditure, while others have great endurance under great exertion. So, in religious feeling, the-enthusiasm aroused at conversion continues, according to individual differences, all the way from a few hours to several years. Sometimes the rise and fall in religious feeling seems to attach itself to other natural rhythms. One person reports that during five successive years he was awakened to a religious enthusiasm during the winter, which de- clined in the summer. Malling-Hansen has established the fact of a yearly rhythm in growth. In his tests on children, he ascertained that physical growth is greatest during the autumn months, less from December to the end of April, and that there is a minimal period from the end of April to the end of July. Almost the whole weight gained from December to April is lost during the minimal period. ^ The rise in religious feeling during the winter may be conditioned in part by the more rapid ' P. Malling-Hansen, Perioden iin Gewicht der Kinden und in der Sonnenwdrme, Kopenhagen, 1886, p. 64. 36o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION metabolic changes going on in the organism at that time. There is an unconscious recognition of this prin- ciple in the fact that religious revivals are almost always held during the winter. The true understanding of so-called ' back-sliding' — a very common phenomenon — is to be found in part in the principle of the natural fluctuations of religious feel- ing. In the first publication of the Study of Conversion, an attempt was made to classify the cases according to their degree of permanence. That has been found since to be a futile effort. It is more fair to say that the instances arrange themselves in a series from the few at the one extreme in which there was complete relapse to those, at the other, in which there was a slight ebb of religious' ardour. Although a large proportion of the respondents admit a lack of constancy in the warmth of their enthusiasm, there are almost none (about 6 per cent.) of these who do not maintain at the same time that their religious status was little affected. One woman, who reports that through the influence of a sceptical husband her religious activity for a time com- pletely ceased, and she was thrown into a period of indifiference and introspection, maintains that her 'faith never waned.' A man of 35, who, after his conversion at 19 had passed through both doubt and storm and stress, says : ' I have never given up in the least degree my religious faith.' From what has been said it would appear that the effect of conversion is to bring with it a changed attitude toivard life which is fairly constant and permanent, although the feelings fluctuate. It is as if the new nerve-connections in the association-centres of the brain, with which the personality is now identified, had become somewhat permanently fixed ; but the flow of nerve energy were intermittent, and sometimes were not sufficient in intensity to awaken a simultaneous response in the sympathetic and vaso-motor systems. In such times of low tension the nervous discharges are sufficient to make themselves felt in consciousness, but not intense enough to overflow into the motor areas. One is accord- LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 361 ingly not only indifferent, but inactive in the direction of the new life. We must not make too much of the principle of fluctuations of feeling, however, as an explanation of the difficulties that follow conversion ; there are other causes equally as apparent. An important one among these is the persistence of old habits, which for the time have lost their force and have become hidden from view in the presence of the new lines of activity. When, after a time, the newly-acquired enthusiasm' has partly died away, these old habits re-assert themselves. From the table we observe that more than one-fourth of the women and about one-third of the men are disturbed after conversion by the persistence of old habits. This general type of experience is well illustrated in the ifollowing case of a man converted at 20. His awaken- ing was sudden and spontaneous after several years of conflict with evils and imperfections and aspiration toward a higher life. In describing the feelings imme- diately following conversion, he says ; ' I had a libertj', a freedom, a joy that I had not before. My general health at once improved. I at once began to study the best books, to seek for the best things, to plan to be something for God. I read the Bible with more delight, I wanted others to know that I was a Christian. I worked hard, played hard, did everything with enthusi- asm and reason for the glory of my Master. I thought all sin was killed. I thought I could be tempted with anything and yet not feel the temptation. I thought sin would never live again in me. I loathed impurity ; my desires and aspirations were for the purest of the pure.' Writing of his present experience, some ten years later, he says : ' But I have found since and find now that sin is very much alive, and I have a constant struggle to keep it down. Laziness, sluggishness, low grovelling desires, the old impure images and fancies, the remembrance of the past still haunts me. I have never doubted that a change then took place in my life, although I have doubted the explanation of it.' The 362 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION condition underlying the necessity of having to fight the old battles over again is clear. The habits of early life, which have cut out deep channels in the nervous system, and have left their impression there, are still easy out- lets for the discharge of nervous force, provided it is not drafted off along new channels. The moment the enthusiasm declines and the tension which holds life steady and firm in the newly-acquired channels is re- laxed, one falls back into the old modes of activity. This aspect of the adolescent conflict represents the incongruity between the old nerve-tracts, which corre- spond to the habits that have at one time been forsaken, and the new lines of nervous activity, which have not yet become thoroughly established. As we shall see, the tendency is for the effort to continue until the new set of neural habits, that correspond to the conduct of life on a spiritual plane, have become so deeply in- grained that life expresses itself naturally and easily through them. When this is accomplished the old habits have lost their force. If this physiological point of view is a true one, it should bring to our mind with the greatest emphasis some points of practical importance in regard to the post-conversion, period. The nerve-tracts involved in the old life are perhaps structurally as much a part of the person's make-up just after conversion as are his arms or legs. They may cease to exist as functioning organs in either of two ways ; they may be completely taken up into the new centres and co-ordinated with them, or left empty because nervous energy is all expended in other ways. In either case, the old neural channels are still there to assume their'former functions the moment the new are off guard. The old may cease, but only by becoming hopelessly enslaved and sub- ordinated to the new, or by withering up and dying for want of exercise. The futility of expecting a new insight to become permanent, however genuine it may be, without follow- ing it up with conduct that works the new life over into LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 363 neural habit, is apparent on the face of it. The new must be drilled in as indelibly as was the old. The Salvation Army has caught the secret of it. They set the convert, by every means available, to the task of cultivating nervous discharges in the brain areas con- nected with the spiritual life. He is to make the higher life habitual. He is to get it ingrained into his very structure. He pounds it in while beating a drum ; he walks it in while marching ; he sings it, talks it, acts it out in deeds of service ; and all this so persistently that it is finally a part of himself He has finally cast out the evil with the good. Another form of adolescent struggle which is given in the table is that due to a sense of incompleteness. It occurs in 33 per cent, of the women and 15 per cent, of the men. It is a phenomenon which bears the same general interpretation as does that of the struggle with habits. It is the general and organic experience of which habit is the specific. The struggle with habits is the recognition of the conflict between some bit of the old life and the new ; the feeling underlying the sense of incompleteness is that life in toto is evil, and sets itself in conflict with the ideals awakened at the time of conversion. It should be noticed that the struggles with habit are more common with the men, while the sense of incompleteness is more than twice as frequent among the women. This is in accordance with the sex-differ- ences which have been pointed out all the way along. The sense of incompleteness, or the struggle after an ideal, which follows conversion, is not different in kind from that which precedes conversion, nor from what we have found to belong to adolescent development among the non-conversion group. The fact of its prominence after conversion helps to demonstrate that conversion, which usually comes in early adolescence, has only opened up the possibility of real development on the spiritual plane. Conversion is most frequently an awakening to some truth ; but it is a truth which is yet only perceived and has not yet been worked over into conduct. It remains 364 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION for the person to make at least a fraction of the ideal a part of himself — to grow towards it. This seems to be the function of the several years of adolescent insta-, bility — to enable the youth to keep on trying in the direction of the higher life until it is made habitual. The storm and stress experiences which follow con- version are not different in kind from those with which we have already become familiar, and need no further illustration. The point of interest for us is that they occur even more frequently by about 10 per cent, in each of the seices among the persons who have experienced conversion than among the others. One may look for the causes underlying this difference in several directions. In the first place, it seems to be due to the fact, as has already been pointed out, that the conversion group are persons who are more suggestible, more impressionable, and, accordingly, more liable to undergo mental crises. The difference seems to be due in part, likewise, to the fact that at conversion the ideal life and the past life are brought into definite conflict. There is a sharper cleav- age between the higher and lower selves ; an ideal is established which is more difficult to attain because of its great incongruity with the old life. The person is suddenly expected to identify himself with the conven- tional ways of the churches, which are at variance with his usual habits of life. It seems natural, if these causes obtain, that the conflict and friction in the adjustment of life to the new standard should be greater in the case of the conversion type. While storm and stress is relatively more frequent after conversion than in the non-conversion group, doubts, on the other hand, are much less frequent ; they occur in 38 per cent, of the women and 57 per cent, of the men. The fact that they are fewer seems to indicate that when the person has already publicly identified himself with religious matters, doubt and rejection is a more serious step ; also that when the person is kept active in religious performance there is not so great opportunity to stop and weigh matters of LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 365 doctrine. Still, it should be observed that the per- centages are large. They seem to indicate the difficulty of complete mental assimilation of religious doctrines. The young convert has usually given his assent to the theological teachings with which he is now identified, in a purely emotional way, and not as the result of having weighed them intellectually. In order to make them really his own, he must pass through the process which is involved in mental assimilation of any kind. He must hold them off', and perceive them and weigh them, and then accept them in so far as they can fit into his own mental make-up. This is the same mental procedure, usually extending through several years, which we found to belong normally to the period of adolescence, namely, that the individual must appre- ciate and assimilate those modes of thought and life which belong to the social whole. We have now passed in review some of the charac- teristic difficulties that follow conversion, and found them to be exactly the same in kind, although there are some marked differences in degree, as those which are experienced in the absence of conversion. We should ■notice one other marked similarity, that in both groups the spiritual difficulties are limited to about the same years. They come most frequently in the middle period of adolescence, during the late teens, less frequently in the early twenties, and almost never after 30. In only 6 per cent, of the cases do the troubles intensify after 25 years of age. This is further evidence which tends to set adoles- cence off as a distinct stage in growth, and to demon- strate that events of the particular nature we have found all along in the study of adolescence belong to this period, whether conversion occurs or not. That these experiences belong to adolescence was further borne out in this way : the number of- conversions in both sexes were separated into two groups according to age ; in the first group were included the females under 13 and the males under 15 ; in the second group, those- 366 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION above these ages. This made a nearly equal number of males and females in each group. It was found that storm and stress and doubt occurred during adolescence with just about the same frequency among those who were converted early as among those whose conversion took place within the years of greater maturity. It appears that, in either event, whether conversion comes early or late, it is the beginning of a process of growth, a first insight into a life which has to be appropriated and assimilated and worked over into conduct. This much is clear to the present point, that while the events that occur in the process of spiritual readjust- ment in the two types of growth are identical in character, the persons who experience conversion continue to feel themselves identified with religion to a greater degree ; they are less likely to become alienated from it, and to look upon it objectively, as is shown in the infrequency of complete relapses and the relative fewness of sceptical doubts. Whether or not this is a wholesome tendency must be left until we come to consider the present status of the two groups. In still another respect we find that the line of growth following conversion runs exactly parallel with that pointed out in Part II. Here, likewise, we find a definite period of reconstruction ; and, reviewing the cases in the rough, it appears that while nearlyall have had adolescent difficulties, at the time of making the records all of the respondents except three have arrived at a positive and constructive attitude toward life. Almost without exception they have left their struggles behind them. Although there are doubts still of certain things that other people regard as essential, they give no especial anxiety. The right to question beliefs is, on the contrary, often regarded as the condition of arriving at truth ; for example, one man says : ' I have tested my hold on truth by reason and experience. I hold every belief subject to revision; nothing is outside, the sphere of doubt and inquiry. I never consider a matter settled until its truth seems irresistible.' The definite ' LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 367 age at which reconstruction occurs does not come out so clearly here as in the former study on account of the fewness of the cases. From what has been said, how- ever, it is clear that it is here again not later than 25. It is even more marked in this class than in the former, judging by the larger percentage who have finally entered upon a positive stage. The instinct of sociality is greater in this class of persons whose life is usually conducted in close conjunction with organised institu- tions. The fact of having to work along with people brings with it the necessity of adapting one's own religious conceptions to those of society. One must either do this or stand aloof from one's fellows, and persons almost invariably choose the former alternative. Another influence which is strongly at work in bringing about the period of reconstruction seems to be the psy- chological necessity of gaining a clear mental horizon ; one cannot remain in uncertainty. There is in the cases a distinct working of the ' will to believe.' One person says 'faith is man's comprehensive duty.' We occa- sionally find persons in the act of trying to reconstruct their faith. A woman converted at 16 says : ' I am doubtful of the truth of the Thirty-nine Articles. I have a growing belief in the existence of God who is a universal Father. I am trying again to believe in the divinity of Christ.' In these people, then, who have passed through con- version, we have the same reconstruction process of growth illustrated that we have found heretofore. This correspondence makes it appear a little more probable that it is a universal tendency in religious development that the period of adolescence should end by transition to a positive and active religious attitude. Since we have now learned that whether or not con- version has been experienced persons tend to pass through the same general line of growth, we come to the question whether or not they merge into mature life with the same general religious conceptions and attitudes. 368 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION A partial answer to the question can be found by considering the beliefs, feelings and ideals of the two groups. These three aspects of the adult religion of the conversion group were tabulated under the same head- ings which grew up in the study of the non-conversion cases. If we compare first the feelings, we find among the conversion cases the same emotions, but with these essential differences : the feelings which represent a sense of oneness with God and Christ and the Holy Spirit ire far more common, and there is apparently greater subjectivity of feeling. These persons show to a less degree the feeling of humility and dependence ; but this is no evidence of the absence of a sense of kinship between themselves and God, but rather that there is not an intellectual recognition of the relation- ship. There is more commonly than in the other group a sense of inward joy and satisfaction. Such forms of expression as these are common : ' The spirit beareth witness with my spirit that I am a child of God.' ' We know that He abideth in us by the spirit He hath given us.' The most decided difference seems to be that in the conversion group the range of feel- ing has become narrowed and intensified ; there is to a greater degree inward assurance of a satisfactory personal experience. In the comparison of the beliefs of the two groups, there are some likenesses and differences that stand out clearly. In both, the beliefs centre most often around the three great questions of God, Christ, and Immor- tality. The belief in God is mentioned with about the same frequency as in the other group. It is by far the most important of all the items. There is this difference, which the percentages do not show, that the conception of God is nearly always expressed in conventional language. The representation of God as mystery, as infinity, force, or life, or law, as the underlying reality of the world — conceptions which indicate that the person is in the process of gaining a first-hand appreciation of LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 369 the God-idea and assimilating it — almost never occur, although these conceptions were frequent among the non-conversion group. Twice as often do they describe their beliefs in terms of the Apostles' creed. The belief in Christ is a somewhat more vital concep- tion among the conversion cases by as much as the ratio of 51 to 43. The belief in immortality, if one were to judge by the frequency with which it is mentioned, is not so central, the ratio being 12 to 26. It seems often not to have been mentioned, because it is so much a matter of course ; this, however, does not sufficiently explain its absence. In the relative infrequency of sceptical doubts, the question seems not to have forced itself upon their notice. We saw in the previous dis- cussion of adult beliefs that the immortality question got more and more consideration as a life problem as life advanced. It is a noteworthy fact that in the development of religions the conceptions of immortality has arisen later than the theistic notions. A suggestive contrast between the two groups is that the conception of religion as a life within, which we found to represent the most central tendency in growth in the non-conversion group, does not appear so frequently here as a matter of belief One would anticipate, from the results of the comparison of the feelings, that it would figure as one of the central conceptions. It is more a feeling than a rational cog- nition. This is in line with what we have been ascer- taining. The process of intellectual assimilation is less among the persons who have passed through the conversion experience. In accordance with their consti- tutional and temperamental differences they to a great extent feel their way. Storm . and stress as a sequel to conversion we found to be more frequent, while doubts were fewer. If we notice the contrast between the tw'o groups in regard to the other things which we found to be important elements in belief — religion as centering in scientific and philosophical conceptions religion as a process of growth, and religion as con- 2 A 370 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION cerned with conduct — we have ample evidence that this crucial difference obtains. These three types of feeling are all conspicuously absent among the conversion group. The ratio of the conception of religion as centering in scientific and philosophical conceptions in the two groups is i to 1 1 ; that of religion as a process of growth is i to 3 ; and that of religion as conduct is i to 5. The prominence of these items among the non-conversion group indicates that they are trying to reduce their world to a system and to solve their relation with it. They objectify religion sufficiently to see it in its time aspects, and to ap- preciate it as a process of growth. They take into account in a vital way their relationship to society, and feel that right-doing is a test of religion. The tendency among the conversion cases, on the contrary, seems to be to feel that they possess a definite relation with God and Christ without having so large concern about the intellectual comprehension of this relation. Along with a more subjectified attitude there is a higher degree of finality and all-sufficiency in the experience ; the idea of progression to an end towards which growth tends is taken less into account. They cognise their personal relationships less perfectly. Practical ethical matters appeal less to clear consciousness. This we shall find to be true also in the discussion of their idfeal§, Nevertheless, the personal relationships are more"' strongly appreciated from the standpoint of intu- itions. Nearly all the records of conversion experience speak of God in terms of His personal attributes. They picture Him as a loving Father who cares for His children ; but less frequently than the other cases do they speak of Him as a Father or Spirit, or a Being who inspires awe and reverence. In short, the con- version group approach religion more from the subjective, emotional standpoint ; but at the sacrifice of an intellectual comprehension of it, and of a rational appreciation of the relationship they sustain to the world. Even more suggestive is the comparison of the ideals LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 371 of the two groups. In the consideration of the ideals we shill assume that they represent that which is most alive in consciousness. They indicate neither that which has already been perfectly assimilated, nor that which is entirely unattained, but rather the point at which growth is most rapid. A comparison of the ideals is shown in Table XXXII. Ideals. Conversion. Non-Conversion. Females. Males. Females, Males. [ Helpfulness to Others 52 64 65 52 "1 Harmony with God . 13 18 20 19 [ To Love and Serve God . 19 28 18 9 Christ 26 33 14 18 ( Self-perfection .... 3? 38 32 41 i Self-expression .... 18 33 10 II [ To know 9 6 16 Self-interest .... 5 3 14 / Self-abnegation .... \ Specific Virtues 9 10 20 13 9 20 34 30 Altruistic Group 94 110 103 80 Self-enlargement Group 57 79 51 82 Regulative Group 18 30 54 43 Table XXXII. — Comparing the ideals of the conversion and non- conversion cases. We find the same ideals expressed, but with variations in their relative prominence. Before proceeding to a general comparison of the two groups, there are some differences between the sexes which deserve notice. In the conversion group the men express ideals more frequently than the women in every class, with the single exception of gaining knowledge. In the non- conversion group this relation tends to be reversed. This is especially true in the altruistic class of jdeals. We found in Part I. that conversion was a more living experience with men ; that fact may account for the 372 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION contrast, if we take into consideration tiiat tiie effect of conversion was to awaken consciousness vigorously in the direction of the spiritual life. In comparing the groups of ideals in the two sets of persons, the altruistic seem to be somewhat heightened by conversion, by as much as the ratio of lOO to 95. If the ideals centering in Christ, which, as we have seen, are partly altruistic, were added, the difference would be increased to that represented by the ratio of 139 to no. We may invoke the principle just spoken of to explain this variance likewise. One immediate effect of con- version we found to be to arouse the social and altruistic impulses. The other marked effect of conversion was to call forth an exalted self-consciousness, an awaken- ing to greater emotional activity. This is reflected among the ideals in the fact that the self-expression motive is far rhore frequent in the conversion cases. At the same time, the desire for knowledge and self- interest are somewhat greater in the non-conversion group. The greatest contrast between the two is in the regulative impulses ; they are far more numerous among the non-conversion people. This falls in line with the distinction pointed out in discussing the beliefs. Those who have passed through conversion are much less con- cerned with matters of conduct. The conversion ideal as usually held up emphasises complete self-mastery, the giving up of self wholly to the service of God. This is what we find reflected in the table. In the smaller number of regulative impulses there is evidence that the ' old nature ' has been more completely eradicated. The fact that self-expression, love and service of God, and the ideal as embodied in Christ's life, are greater, implies that there has been a more complete birth on the spiritual plane. There is a more definite giving-up of self, except as represented in the self-enlargement im- pulses of self-perfection and self-expression ; and a more complete transferring of the centre of activity to an objective standard. LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 373 But the case has been made too strong. We must bear in mind that the conclusion just reached grows out of only one aspect of the comparison of the two groups. One condition which clearly lies back of the contrast in the ideals is that the conversion group are tempera- mentally different. They are more emotional ; they see things more in general and abstract terms ; they are controlled less by rational insight. The smaller number of the regulative impulses may indicate simply self- forgetfulness in the presence of stirring emotions. The relative absence of the specific virtues may be the result of less skill in self-analysis. The difference between the two groups may be most comprehensively expressed in terms of the nervous system. The condition is as if in the conversion group the association-centres in the cortex, after having been awakened at conversion, were now less completely co- ordinated with the lower than is the case among the non-conversion cases. There is accordingly greater subjectivity and immediacy of experience ; the within- ness of religion is appreciated as a matter of feeling, and not as an intellectual comprehension. Rational insight, which involves the co-ordination and association of the lower brain areas through the higher — that is to say, which implies that the spiritual life shall be interpreted in terms of sensuous experience — is relatively absent. The association-centres are doubtless most directly evolved out of those activities which are connected with social organisation ; accordingly we have found that the social and altruistic impulses are the ones most vitally connected with the functioning of these brain centres. In both of the groups we are studying, these impulses are important elements in religion ; helpfulness to others is equally prominent in both groups. But, on the other hand, the conversion group is awakened more on the side of abstract ideals. Love and service of God and of Christ are far more common ; while, on the other hand, the non-conversion group are more con- cerned v/ith the specific and practical aspect of the 374 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION problem, that which involves the regulation of personal conduct in accordance with social demands. That such is the normal sequence of conversion we shall have additional evidence in the next chapter when we come to the consideration of ' Sanctification.' CHAPTER XXIX SANCTIFICATION The religious experience known in theological terms as ' sanctification,' or the 'second work of grace,' lends' itself so readily to psychological analysis that it deserves especial consideration. Its chief value in our present discussion is that it shows in an emphasised form certain aspects of growth which we have found both to follow conversion, and also to occur in the religion of mature life of those who have not passed through conversion. In its usual designation, sanctification is regarded as a special act of the Holy Spirit, by which one is, in a peculiar way, freed from sin, and set apart for a holy life. For our purpose we shall leave behind the theo- logical content of the term, its distinction from regenera- tion and justification, the question as to whether it is a sudden experience or a process of ' growth in grace,' and shall allow our conception of the experience to develop as it may out of the analysis of the records of their own experiences, as made by persons who have professed sanctification. Its relation to conversion and its significance in religious growth will appear as we proceed. One of my pupils, Mr Ivan Deach, succeeded in bringing together and organising 5 1 records of sanctifica- tion. His list of questions was exhaustive enough to call out not only the immediate events centering around sanctification, but also the essential features of the life history of the respondents. He has kindly allowed me 376 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION to use his tabulated results. The interpretation of the data is partly Mr Deach's and partly my own. Before proceeding to a discussion of sanctification itself, we should stop a moment to look at the personnel of the respondents. As to age at the time of replying, they range from 20 to "JJ ; only 5 are below 30, the greater number are between 30 and 60. In respect to nationality, 23 are American, 1 1 English, S Scotch ; besides these there a few scattered ones. Just as in the study of the post-conversion development, about one- half are Methodists; besides these, 14 belong to the Salvation Army, 9 are Baptists, 2 Christian Scientists, and I is a Unitarian ; 35 are men, and 16 are women. Sanctification seems to bear throughout a close relation to conversion. All but one of the 51 persons passed through conversion at some tim^e previous to sanctification ; 38 of the number experienced sudden conversion. Of the lOO persons whose post-conversion growth was followed in the last chapter, 14 (not used in this section) had already, at the time of writing, gone on to sanctification. That is, it seems that sanctification is almost invariably preceded by conversion. These surface considerations indicate that it is a step in one of the normal lines of growth which follow conversion. On the other hand, among the 237 persons studied in Part IL, none claimed sanctification as a distinct step in growth, although many of the characteristics of adult religion among those persons bear, as we shall see, close kinship to the essential qualities of sanctification. There are several different views of sanctification among the Protestant churches. Two conceptions somewhat at variance are those which regard it, on the one hand, as a gradual development following upon regeneration, and, on the other, as an instantaneous act. Those who hold the latter view are usually the ones who likewise believe that regeneration is a sudden definite step, such as has been described in conversion. Of those who replied to the list of questions, 48 of the 5 1 were of this second class, and said that sanctification SANCTIFICATION 377 was an instantaneous event. This should be taken into account in the discussion which follows. It is obvious that these people are temperamentally similar to those studied in Part I., except that they possess the peculiarities which distinguish the conversion group in even greater degree. Nearly half of the 51 cases report that outside of these two marked events in their development they passed through periods of unusual exhilaration. More than a fourth had such periods frequently. As we proceed, we shall find evidences continually that the qualities of the sanctification phenomena are coloured by temperamental conditions. While it would be desirable to have an equal number of those who profess sanctification as the result of gradual development, we may, nevertheless, expect to find the same essential elements in the process brought into clearer relief in the study of the sudden experience. When we come to consider the intimate nature of sanctification, its similarities to conversion appear on every hand. The distinctive things in the earlier experience are even emphasised in the later. Both events in the lives of the persons we are studying usually come suddenly ; both mark a transition from a lower to a higher state of perfection ; both are preceded by a period of longing and discontent — of striving after a satisfaction. Before sanctification this discon- tent is similar to the conviction period before conver- sion, but, as a rule, with the difference that the sense of sin has given place to a feeling of incompleteness and imperfection. These extracts from the sancti- fication records will illustrate : ' I felt a deep inward conviction of the need of something from God for myself, and felt God's call to complete union with Him.' ' I felt I was living below the experience God would have me attain.' ' With others I had been earnestly seeking for complete consecration for a number of years.' ' I had been troubled and distressed for some time. It was a period of longing and determination to lead a holy life.' The ideal life toward which the person is 378 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION striving is more distinctly present in consciousness than was true before conversion. The effect of conversion seems to be, as we saw in Part L, to bring a possible righteous life and the old imperfections into sharp contrast. There is the same persistent struggle after the higher Hfe as we found there, but in an exaggerated form. The final attainment of the desired experience is con- ditioned, just as was conversion, by faith, self-surrender and consecration. This was mentioned by 23 of the respondents as an important element in the realisation of the second experience. One of them writes : ' I had been told that implicit faith was a pre-requisite. With positive beHef came the experience.' Another, who had tried long in vain, says : ' Then I went on my knees alone, determined to get the victory. I made a com- plete consecration of all I had and all I was to God. I felt that God had accepted my offering, and that all sin was taken out of my heart' Perfect self-surrender seems to be an even more inevitable condition of sancti- fication than of conversion. One man describes vividly how the Lord tested him with one demand after another, and the experience came only after he had expressed his willingness to renounce everything — even, finally, his family ties. After all the longing and striving, and then the faith and self-surrender, the part played by those forces which are outside of one's immediate control are more prom- inent than is the case in conversion. The element of spontaneity, of unconscious activity of the mind — the 'work of the Holy Spirit' — which we found to be common to all the groups studied, is even more markedly and persistently present at this crisis. One person, for example, says, in describing the event : ' I was walking alone over the fields, and was suddenly filled with the most marvellous power.' The impulse sometimes comes as a force that is not to be withstood. ' I was doing my morning housework, and felt an irresistible desire to pray. Three times I was thus called away from my SANCTIFICATION 379 work.' Another was so powerfully impelled that while going home from meeting he ' kneeled down in the rain and mud and prayed.' He goes on to say: 'Suddenly the darkness of the night seemed lit up. I felt, realised, knew that God had answered my prayer ; and a feeling of sweet peace and satisfaction and happiness came over me. I felt that I was accepted into the inner circle of God's loved ones.' Two persons ' woke up with it ' after a night's rest. It will be recalled that we pointed out in the discussion of similar instances of conversion how common it is for the mind to solve its problems during sleep. The feeling of God's forgiveness, the freedom from the sense of sin, prominent at the critical point in con- version, is one of the most frequently expressed char- acteristics of sanctification ; but the form of expression has changed. While the former was a mere act of pardon, this is usually described as a complete cleansing. These are typical : ' I felt pure and clean so that I wished I were made of glass, so that everyone could look within my heart.' ' I had the witness of God's spirit that a clean heart had been created within me.' ' Self-mastery and a real purification of my nature became manifest in me.' The work of forgiveness seems to be more thorough ; it involves one's entire being ; the person feels not only that his sins have been forgiven, but that he has been made wholly pure. The sense of oneness with God or Christ, another immediate result of conversion, is likewise emphasised in sanctification. It is now expressed with greater fulness of feeling. ' The blessed assurance came that God had taken me for His own and had come to abide. My joy was full.' ' It brought me to a deeper con- sciousness of God's presence.' ' A sense of perfect harmony with God and joy unspeakable filled my heart' ' A deeper composure seized me, a sense of Divine nearness.' In view of all these similarities, the question arises. Wherein does sanctification differ from conversion ? 38o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Does it bring with it anything new, over and above what was experienced in conversion ? For the dis- tinction we shall rely first upon the testimony of the respondents, most of whom attempted an answer to the question, and later on we shall interpret the difference in the light of the experiences which intervene between conversion and sanctification. As told by the respondents, the distinction is ex- pressed tersely by one of them thus : 'It was the climax of the spiritual development that had been going on within me. It differed from conversion not in kind, but in degree.' This gives the spirit of most of the others, and almost the manner of expression of many of them. The specific ways in which it is a culmination of conversion are along the lines of the changes wrought then in one's nature. Evil habits are more completely broken up. For example: 'At con- version I experienced pardon for sin, a new heart, a disposition to do right, although an evil tendency remained. Sanctification took away this tendency.' The feeling of harmony with God is heightened. ' Sanctification brought a fuller consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit.' Sanctification brings with it a fulness, an all-aroundness of experience which is new. The joy at conversion has been enlarged so that it approaches a state of ecstasy in which one's whole nature participates. ' I was cleansed from all sin and filled with the fulness of God as I had not been at conversion.' ' Conversion was a consecration to God ; sanctification was an exalted state of soul, an indwelling of power.' In these instances one sees also the heightened subjectivity of experience which we shall find to be one of the distinguishing aspects of sanctification. But so far as understanding sanctification in psycho- logical terms is concerned, we are yet on the outside of it. What is going on beneath the surface when persons who have already had a sudden awakening into religious truth profess instantly to be lifted to a yet higher plane SANCTIFICATION 381 of religious life ? We can adequately appreciate the mental processes involved in it, and their significance in religious development, only by following up the ex- periences which intervene between conversion and sanctification. The number of years between the two events varies. They range from two months to forty years. It is a singular fact, the cause of which is not clear, that sanctification is likely to fall inside of the first year after conversion, or to be postponed for at least twenty years. Considerably more than half of the cases occur either before the first year has ended, or after a period of twenty years has elapsed. It appears that the time of least frequency with which sanctification follows conversion is five to ten years. The fact of greatest significance in the light it throws on sanctification in regard to this intervening period is that 80 per cent, of the persons have a troubled and uneven growth. This, it will be recalled, is about the same percentage of storm and stress as we found among the hundred persons studied in the last chapter. The difficulties encountered by these respondents are the same ones described there, and to set them forth in detail would be but repetition. The enthusiasm aroused at conversion is intermittent ; uncertainty occasionally arises as to whether the experience was genuine ; doubts are frequent, incident upon the striving for a clear horizon ; they are the same storm and stress phenomena with which we have become familiar. The old life, professedly abandoned at conversion, is continually cropping up ; temptations recur in the direction of former evils ; the sense of sin and imperfection persists — all of which shows that the old life, although it is for a time lost sight of, still exists in the fibre of one's being, and has by no means entirely dropped away. Interpreted from the psychological point of view, the whole struggle after conversion, and the consequent necessity which many persons feel of passing on to a 'second work of grace,' grows out of the conflict 382 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION between an old habitual life and a new set of function- ings which have not yet become well established in the nervous mechanism. The new set of activities are those connected with the association centres in the brain, and correspond to spiritual insight. The old habitual activities are those which constitute the lower, reflex, sensuous arcs in the nervous structure ; they have been ingrained during all the preceding years into its tissue. Not until adolescence are the higher psychic powers aroused in earnest — the function of conversion is to set them going for religious ends. The person, to be sure, has acted as if he were a spiritual being ; but in so far as there has been self-direction, the lower centres have been organised simply within their own sphere, they have been a law to themselves. But now after the higher centres are awakened, after the person in conversion has accepted the spiritual life as his own, those activities remain a law in one's members which wars against the higher. Sanctification is a fresh affir- mation, when the new life has become established, that the old does not exist. If we notice the nature of the difficulties after con- version, we find none of them which do not fit readily into this conception. In a description like the following one might suppose the person were trying to set forth in figurative language the brain tract idea: 'The tree of sin had been cut down, but the young sprouts of temper, pride, and many others were springing up from the old root.' In other words, the old synthesis of nervous discharges had been shattered, but the nerve elements continued to come together bit by bit into their old combinations, and these were inharmonious with the new spiritual attitude. After persistent effort toward a life which is wholly spiritual, the nervous system forms itself in that direction. The new set of activities furnish a substantial basis for the conduct of life. When this same respondent became conscious of new power, the step by which he identified himself with it was sanctification. He himself had apparently been SANCTIFICATION 383 ignorant of the strength that had been accumulating ; when it arose into consciousness, it marked a great_ event. After sanctification he carries out the same figure, and says : ' I le.- comes prof essedfy what he aspires to be. But who can tell what really happens in one's con- sciousness when one turns seriously into communion with one's deeper self? If we turn to our crude analogy of nerve cells and connections, which we know to be involved in the character and quality of thinking and feeling, we may get a definite picture, at whatever cost of accuracy. Granting that the highest consciousness is conditioned by the most highly and perfectly organised nervous system ; that new ideas imply the functioning of new areas in the nervous system ; that the nerve elements that are concerned in spiritual insight are already formed and lying ready to function, if only brought into the right co- ordination, it is conceivable that during the intense experiences attending conversion, under the heat of the emotional pressure brought to bear, a harmony is struck among these elements which it might have taken months, or even years, to accomplish, if one had been left help- less to grope in doubt and uncertainty. The analysis of the cases before us bears out, from the psychic side, this hypothesis, and shows that conversion is often, to some extent, an anticipation of the direction of adol- escent development. VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 407 It must not be forgotten, however, that the convert has usually still to overcome the same adolescent diffi- culties as does the person whose growth is gradual. To say that the convert anticipates the growth of the other does not mean at all that steps in growth have been dropped out. One suddenly reaches the stature of a man religiously only if, through the gradual and natural maturing of his powers, he is potentially already a man. The child may map out in the rough the end to be attained ; the solid structure has yet to be builded. The awakening of the association-centres, which gives glimpses into the higher life, is one step toward man- hood or womanhood. The other more serious step is to bring it about that the new life shall be completely co-ordinated with the old, and that it shall become habitual and easy. Adolescence is a preparation for jnanhood. The function of the whole series of years of youth is to produce, out of the dawning spiritual life, with its sense of newness, its uncertainty, faltering, doubting — no matter in what way it first shows itself — a stable and symmetrical manhood and womanhood. CHAPTER XXXI SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES The reader who has followed through the preceding pages, may have felt, while looking into these groups of facts, the possibility of becoming nature's helper toward wiser and better ways of religious education. We have now to take some little account of the stock of practical wisdom we have gathered. We have found ourselves wandering off, here and there, into the educational implications of the prin- ciples we have chanced to discover, when they seemed heavy with practical suggestiveness. In Chapters XIII. and XXVIII. we deliberately turned aside to discuss the pedagogy of conversion. In the chapter just before this, and in several earlier ones, we indulged in little digressions on the pedagogy of adolescence. The points discussed will not be called up again. We are now to turn to a few considerations of a more general nature. The first thing that impresses us is that the residue has shrunken below what we had anticipated while we were wandering among the groups of details. It seems less than the sum of the bits of wisdom that we seemed to gather up here and there. . It has been noticeable all the way along that some one of our conclusions which appeared true at the time has been limited and restricted by some other one equally true. In our study of groups, sub-groups and individual records, we have at last a somewhat contradictory array of results. Indeed, if there is any one thing that we learn forcibly 408 SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 409 from the preceding pages, it is the importance of being shy of making too hasty educational inferences. Especi- ally is this true in applying to individual instances principles that are true for people in general. Tem- peraments and the complexities of environment are as manifold as the persons who compose the groups we have been studying. The first demand is that in religious education we adapt ourselves to the needs and conditions of each person. One can scarcely think of a single pedagogical maxim in regard to religious training which, if followed in all cases, might not violate the deepest needs of the person whom it is our purpose to help. The first requisite is that the teacher or spiritual leader shall know something of the case he is to deal with — his training, his temperament, and the present trend of his life. It requires careful reading into human- nature to know what a person needs, and is ripe for. Although it is difficult to lay down rules that^ will apply to individual persons, and to the same person in different periods of his development, still the results are not so barren as we might at first suppose. The value of the study of persons in groups is that it establishes certain standards by which to judge individual instances. To haye well-established types by which to estimate religious phenomena is as important in the sphere of spiritual things as to have standards of distance in physics and astronomy, or laws and principles and formulas in mathematics and chemistry. It is of even greater importance, inasmuch as the data are intangible. We find, in the first place, glancing at the general course of development, that there are different lines oj religious growth. If we classify the persons by the way they make the transition from childhood to maturity, we have studied at least four fairly distinct types of experience. There are, first, those who make the tran- sition without any hitch or break, and who reach man- hood or womanhood without knowing how or when. There are those, again, in whom the currents of fresh 4IO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION life break at the surface, and render youth more or less tempestuous. Of these, one group is fitted tempera- mentally to work themselves into a crisis, and to make the transition suddenly. Of this number there are those, lastly, who are yet more impulsive, and who not only enter adolescence by a conversion, but pass from that to maturity in the same way. Religious teachers will accomplish the best results by taking into account all these ways, which are for different qualities of temperament, doubtless, the normal lines of growth. Among the Christian churches there are distinct ideals held up as the true means of enter- ing the spiritual life. A few denominations emphasise the fact of sin, set it against that of salvation, and insist on a definite, decisive, and more or less momentary change of life. Another group of denominations have recognised the likelihood of the burst of new life at the beginning of adolescence-; they take means to cultivate it, and have established the rite of confirmation, which symbolises the entrance into the new life. Still a third group of churches hold to the idea that the religious life, just as the mental or physical, is a gradual development and that alone, and have no ceremony to bring about or symbolise the birth into the new life. Certain denomi- nations have caught up and emphasised one aspect of growth, and overlooked others which seem equally natural and fundamental. We have seen that these groups of persons all reach about the same end. The quality of religion which results, and the person's attitude toward life have, in general, more similarities than differences. They are different ways toward the same goal. But now, in spite of the fact that one church holds up as its ideal one of these lines of growth, and another holds exclusively to another, the persons in these churches are scattered among all the groups we have studied. They follow the laws written in their own beings, rather than the ideal held up by the churches. A few churches recognise, to a certain degree, these different tendencies, and attempt to meet SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 411 them. It is a matter of the greatest moment that religious institutions become so plastic that they can adapt themselves to the peculiarities and needs of individual life, rather than to conform over-strenuously to a single, abstract ideal. The feature of the study which throws most light on the problem of religious education is the setting forth of the stages in growth from childhood to maturity. Fortunately, we are coming to observe tendencies in growth everywhere. Nothing has helped more in inter- preting human life and the world about us, has so brought order and purpose out of chaos, as our habit of seeing everything fit into a process of development. Everything is good in proportion as it is seen to con- tribute to a higher good. The individual human life, too, is a developing thing. Each stage in it contributes to the next. The object of all its periods, taken to- gether, is to produce a man or woman, as it is the purpose of racial life to produce a. perfect type of humanity. There are duties and ideals which are especially fitting for each stage in life. And so there is a religious ideal peculiar to each age. In secular education we are coming rapidly to recognise the varying needs of the growing child, and to adapt ourselves to each period of growth — to make the most out of each, in order that it may lead on easily and naturally to the next. Ethical and religious education must likewise adapt themselves to the growing personality of the individual. We are now to notice briefly the various stages in life, and the different emphasis that our religious precepts must have in each. For our purpose, we shall consider only the principal ones — childhood, youth, and manhood or womanhood. It is a characteristic of childhood to be lacking in self-conscious personality. True enough, each child has his own peculiarities, but his acts are largely the result of either heredity or imitation. Through hereditary traits, the child is bound close to racial life. It is 412 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION necessary for its own well-being and for that of humanity that it be much like its own. Society would be im- possible if a child were born a tree or a bird. The instinct of imitation is yet another way nature has of making children embody the characteristics of their kind. By mimicking the habits of those about him, the little dog is becoming more a dog, and the babe more human. Through these two sources, the child is becoming unconsciously filled with good habits — is having ingrained into his nerves, bones and muscles customs that will be of utility when he takes his place at some future time as a citizen. It has been well observed that the helplessness of childhood, and the lengthening out of its period of duration has been a necessary accompaniment and condition of our evolved civilisation. It furnishes a longer time in which to acquire good habits. Now the condition that a child shall drink in the best of racial life is that it have a con- siderable degree of submissiveness. Consequently it has been generally recognised that the central precept for childhood is obedience. Among different peoples this has been regarded as, in early life, the highest virtue. What we have noticed in the religion of childhood seems to be in accordance with this characteristic. The child is credulous. Religion is external to him. He is open and receptive toward his surroundings ; he drinks in unconsciously the religious influences about him. The function of childhood is to furnish for after life a rich fund of latent wisdom, and to lay by a stock of wholesome tendencies. There comes a time, however, when the child must awaken to the fact of his own personality. He is later to stand as a unit in society, is to be a positive force among his fellows. He must become conscious of his own powers. To self-consciousness, he must add self- direction. He must grow strong, cease to be a mere recipient, and become a producer. Now the truest message for youth is that which calls out the per- sonality into clear identity, which helps it on to its feet. SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 413 Youth starts uncertain of itself, halting and stumbling. Morally, physically, every way, the boy or girl in early adolescence is awkward and unsteady. The gait is ambling, the movements are ungainly, the speech is ungraceful. All told, the youth is an uncertain and vacillating quantity. He may have to pass through the whole range of adolescent years before he gains pos- session of himself. It is the business of the parent and teacher to help the youth become a man, to inspire con- fidence, to have him pause and listen to the voice within himself ' Be still, and know that I am God,' the Hebrew prophet put into the mouth of Jehovah. ' Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world,' said Emerson, the herald of the gospel of youth. ' Insist on yourself ; never imitate,' ' To thine own self be true,' are the wholesome sentences that have called many a slumbering youth into posses- sion of himself, and set him into the way which leads to strong and beautiful manhood. ' Thou art God, thou art God,' was the message that burned in the heart of the Brahman priests. ' Ye are the sons of God,' said Christ. ' The kingdom of heaven is within you.' Go into thyself, the deepest of depths, He seemed to say, and there thou wilt find thyself to be one with universal life and infinite truth. This is distinctively the ideal of youth — Be thyself, and to thine own self be true. This seems to be the true message for youth, even if it comes often at the cost of a certain degree of con- ceit and self-assertiveness. Youth is proverbially self- centered. We have found in our analysis of the religion of early adolescence, that although the altruistic impulses are inextricably bound up with the rest, the central thing in it is self-realisation. Not long ago, the writer listened to a body of earnest young people discussing in a religious gathering the question of man's duty to 414 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION himself. A single one out of a large number ventured the opinion that one's duty was first to his neighbour and to God, and then to himself. The point of view generally was that if one is wholly true to his higher self, then there can be no accounts to square with any one. If we see what nature is trying to produce in this stage of .growth, we shall not only be patient with the egoism of young people, but, on occasion, encourage it. The lisping and stammering of a little child, if looked upon as a finality, would be a crime against language ; but as a step in the child's develop- ment, it is not only endurable, but becomes sweet and beautiful in what it promises. Youth, too, is only a step in growth. The person can carry back into life only such strength and poise and self-confidence and helpful- ness as he has completely mastered and worked over into his own personality. ' " Faithless and faint of heart," the voice returned, " Thou seest no beauty save thou make it first. Man, Woman, Nature, each is but a glass Where the soul sees the image of herself. Visible echoes, offsprings of herself."' ' He needs to shut himself away from the noisy, hurrying, bustling world, and reflect, meditate, commune with the life that is springing up within him, and let the scattered bits of wisdom that he has gathered here and there flow into an organic whole. The function, then, of adolescence is to lay the foundation through self-realisation for strong, healthy and vigorous manhood and womanhood. A study of the usual trend of life has shown us that the birth of self and the years of effort towards self- realisation are only a preparation for a third stage, which is one, primarily, of helpfulness and service. Most of those who doubt and struggle in youth, persons who are avowedly without a religion, those who toil painfully into clear possession of themselves, who rebel against conventions, who set up their own revelations against SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 415 those of all the rest — these place their lives again in touch with those of their fellows ; come to recognise a law and order that is above their own ; come to see that their own wills are a reflection of a higher will, and that they are one with the life of God and man. It is a conception which emerges into clearer and clearer outline as life grows more complex, that society is an organism ; that its growth and that of each person on whom the whole depends consists in an endless process of giving and taking ; that human beings are members of one body- politically, socially, every way — and must become pro- gressively more so, more rationally and intelligently bound together. The individual comes to feel that he exists for the whole. We see this line of advance, also, in historical de- velopment. In the midst of the ego-centric philosophy of the Upanishads, we come upon a feeling of the limita- tions of the self ' The self is a bank, a boundary. . . . He who has crossed that bank, if blind, ceases to be blind ; if wounded, ceases to be wounded ; if afflicted, ceases to be afflicted. Therefore when that bank has been crossed, night becomes day indeed, for the world of God is lighted up once for all.' This seemed to be the fact of greatest significance in Christ's teaching. ' Whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; but whoso- ever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it.' If we have interpreted the line of growth correctly, this is the gospel of mature life : Lose thyself in some worthy service. Count thy life cheap, if only it can be given up to some high end. We have, then, three precepts, representing three stages of growth : in childhood, conform ; in youth, be thyself ; in maturity, lose thyself. It should not be overlooked that these ideals do not belong exclusively to certain stages of growth. We have only been noticing the special emphasis they demand in each of the periods. Altruism we found to have a definite birth in adolescence, side by side with 4i6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION the birth of self. It is the anticipation of maturity, just as the stilted self-consciousness of a child of six or seven seems to be a premonitory symptom of adolescence. The impulse toward self-enlargement persists, likewise, in the religion of maturity. All these are woven in together at every stage of life. Indeed, what we have come gradually to appreciate in the preceding chapters is that the spiritual life develops out of a complexity of instincts. The growth from childhood consists in emphasising, enlarging and refining some of these at the proper time, and in suppressing others and allowing them to fall into a relatively subordinate place, or even to wither entirely. Religion in its highest form may fairly be regarded as a radiation, an intermingling, a complication and spiritualisation of the impulses already present in human nature. Professor James has stated the prin- ciple in a general form, which applies to religious education as well. ' Every acquired reaction is, as a rule, either a complication grafted on a native reaction, or a substitute for a native reaction, which the same object originally tended to provoke. The teacher's art consists in bringing about the substitution or com- plication, and success in the art presupposes a sym- pathetic acquaintance with the reactive tendencies natively there.' ^ The work of the religious teacher consists in creat- ing such an environment that each of the instincts which enter into the fabric of religion shall be called out through the proper stimuli ; that they be lifted up into the higher psychic centres ; that each shall have its due emphasis during its nascent period of development ; that they be richly interwoven into the texture of the normal psychic reactions, and thereby become spiritualised. This brings us to one of the most suggestive prac- tical considerations, namely, the importance of wisely 1 William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology ; and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals. 1899. SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 417 anticipating the stages of growth and leading on naturally and^xasily from one stage into the next. '/Th e extreme difficulties and friction that so fre- quently attend religious development lead one to believe that there is much needless waste. Life seems to take a zigzag course, instead of following a direct line toward what appears to be its goal. Growth too often proceeds by a series of maladjustments and corrections, by grop- ing in the dark rather than by moving straight onward. The highest function of education is to conserve the life-forces, to produce the best results with the least expenditure of energy. With the ideal ends of growth in view, and with a clear insight into the lines along which it normally proceeds, it should be more and more possible to escape pitfalls, and to make life move on inevitably toward the fullest, most symmetrical pro- portions. If we come to see clearly that religion is the outgrowth of native instincts, we shall see that it is possible to play upon these instincts and elicit them at any point along the line of growth. The friction is largely due to the fact that we stumble unprepared upon new things too great for immediate assimilation. Coming into adolescence, for example, is frequently attended by a shock; persons suddenly come upon the recognition of great, new demands that must be met, and are thrown into confusion. Skill in education consists in taking off the newness of the next step in growth, by drawing those instincts into activity in an earlier stage, which are to function more strongly in a later. If the little child is called out into sympathetic activity in small ways, the foundations are being laid for the disinterested love and service that are to char- acterise its life in maturity. Bits of duty and responsi- bility in childhood, if faithfully discharged, tend to call forth a life which can meet the sense of obligation, that often rises mountain high in youth and crushes the spirit. If, as soon as the intellect begins to pry into things, its craving to comprehend the world be suffici- ently met and satisfied, the youth may not have to THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION choose between authority and reason and narrowly cling to either. If the child is kept doing things which imply religion, while yet ignorant of their meaning, and the youth is encouraged to carry into action the wisdom that comes to him, the way will be paved for the life of conduct which is to supplant the adolescent life especially absorbed in reflection and insig ht. \ In many such ways it seems possible to eliminate unnecessary steps in growth ; to obviate wandering aimlessly and ignorantly here and there in the stream of development ; or, as often occurs, to pass into some side channel or eddy, and remain there, either in the innocence of childhood or in the self-assertion or negation of youth. While it is important to anticipate stages of growth and prepare the way for them, it is just as important that the different steps should not be hastened unduly. If each has its place to fulfil in preparing for the mature life of growth and service, it should be given time to ripen to its full perfection. It seems that nature has a purpose in lengthening out the years of childhood — the age of receptivity — when the child is drinking in the influences and forming the habits which are the stock on which it is to draw in after life. A purpose seems to underlie also the drawing out of adolescence to more than a decade in duration. There is often a tendency to defeat the ends nature apparently has in view, by skipping steps, by forcing the child to the definite religious awakening which belongs to youth, by hasten- ing the youth into missionary work, or other phases of intense activity and assumed productivity, while he should be gaining self-mastery and thorough assimila- tion of the wisdom which, as a mature person, he is to bring back to the world. In organised society this danger is very great. Religious institutions have gathered up through experience a knowledge of the ends of religious growth, and hold to them with un- swerving insistency. Society, which is composed of adults, sees truth naturally from its own point of view; SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 419 the gospel of mature life crystallises into a religious ideal which is not only held up to guide grown men and women, but is thoughtlessly thrust upon children and youths as well. It may be the truest wisdom of those who teach it, and yet not fit the needs of younger persons. Even little children are made to assume the religious customs of grown people, and often not in ways appropriate to them, but in forms adapted to their elders. Just at the transition from childhood to adolescence — at the point at which one begins to gain a first-hand grasp of religious truth — is another step, as we saw in an earlier chapter, at which the enthusiasm of grown persons often gets the better of discretion. The testimony of those whose whole youth seems to have lost its equilibrium through inopportune respond- ing, while yet only children, to the gospel of repentance, or by following the advice of some well-meaning person who did not understand the function of the first serious questioning of a child into religious truth, is a pathetic story. Just when the soul begins to put out its tentacles and feel its way into the higher life, it often happens that someone crashes into it with a gospel that con- tradicts every need of its nature. The disturbances of youth seem to be as much due to lack of sympathy of older people with the needs of human nature as to temperamental peculiarities and physiological defects. The interests of the religious life demand that in venturing to help in the processes of growth from childhood to maturity there should be a tact, a know-^ ledge, a delicacy of treatment, in some measure com- mensurate with the infinite fineness of the organism with which we are dealing. When, and to what extent, should the child be left with the playful imagery that makes up his early religious conceptions ? how far should he conform to the customs of those about him ? under what conditions should a person be let alone to commune with the life that is speaking through him ? is the course of his life already wisely directed, and gravitating surely and steadily toward 420 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION what seems to be the goal of spiritual attainment? are the threads of dawning consciousness being skilfully knit and the tension of feeling symmetrically strung to set the new life going in the right direction, and tune it to every virtue ? is this person ready for the magic stroke which is to change the child into the man? does he only need a hazy mind clarified and a struggling spirit calmed, or has he a distorted attitude of life which should be violently forsaken ? should he be induced into intense activity ? would his life be perfected by a fuller recognition of the forces at work within him, or does he need to be filled and thrilled with the ideal of self-forgetfulness ? These, and many such questions, should be taken into account, at least implicitly, before one ventures to interfere in the delicate processes that are going on in the religious life of any human being. This wisdom will come about only when we have gained a knowledge — a more intimate knowledge than we now possess — of the ends nature has in view in religious development and the lines of approach along which these ends are to be accomplished ; of the factors which enter into fully-developed religion ; of the steps, and their relation to one another, which are involved in the line of growth ; and, furthermore, a knowledge of human nature in all its complexity and diversity. INDEX Abnormal aspects of conversion, 163 et seq., 217, 226, 230, 330, 388. Adler, F., 193. Adolescence and conversion, 44 et seq. , 147 ; spontaneous religious awakening in, 195 et seq. ; storm and stress during, 212 et seq. ; doubt during, 232 et seq. ; birth of larger self in, 251 et seq. ; substitutes for re- ligion during, 268 et seq. ; a distinct stage of growth, 365. Adult life, the period of recon- struction, 277 et seq. ; its beliefs, 311 et seq.; religious feelings of, 324 et seq. ; its motives and purposes, 337 et seq. Esthetic interests, 272, 287. Age and conversion, 28 et seq., 55 et seq. ; and religious avi'aken- ings, 202, 205 ; and doubt, 239, 320 ; and feelings, 333 ; in re- gard to ideals, 343. Altruistic motives to conversion, 52 et seq. ; as ideals, 340 et seq. Automatism in conversion, 73, loi et seq. ' Back-sliding,' 360. Baldwin, C. G., 139. Barnes, M. S., 36. Bierent, 38, 43, 96, 207. Biological view of conversion, 145 et seq. Bodily growth and conversion, 38, 45- Bowditch, 36. Brooke, S., 287. Bryan, W. C. , 262. Burnham, 38, 207, 272. Burk, F., 38, 45, 150. Carlyle, 184. Carpenter, iii. Cartwright, P., 22, i68. Chadwick, 36. Child, C. M., 112. Childhood, conversion in, 34, ^6 ; religion of, \88etseq., 332. Christ, belief in, 321, 369. Clouston, 195, 207, 22S, 241. Confirmation, 21. Conversion, definition of, 21 ; at what age most frequent, 28 et seq. ; and puberty, 37 e! seq. ; and bodily growth, ^8 ; and adolescence, 44 et seq. ; motives and forces of, 49 et seq. ; experiences preceding, 58 et seq. ; mental and bodily affec- tions during, 76 et seq. ; what- it consists in, 90 et seq. ; con- scious and sub- conscious ele- ments in, lOI et seq. ; feelings following, 118 et seq.; as a process of unselfing, 127 et seq. ; regarded as a normal phenomenon, 135 et seq. ; sociological and biological view of, 145 et seq ; physiological view of, 149 et seq. ; psycho- logical view of, 153 et seq.; its abnormal aspects, 163 et seq. ; growth after, 353 et seq. 'Conviction,' 58 et seq., 97 et seq. Curtis, 269. 421 422 INDEX Daniels, A., 4, 149. .Davids, J. W. , 35. Deach, I., 375. Depression, 136. Donaldson, H. H., 45, 150. Doubt, 232 et seq., 271, 303, 399. Education, religious, 8, 408 et seq. Egoistic impulses, 340 et seq. . Eliot, George, 184. Ellis, Ilavelock, 79, 80, 207. Epilepsy, 227. Ethical instinct, 270, 274, 321. Fear as a motive for conversion, 52 et seq. Fiske, J., 192. Flechsig, 150. Fox, 22. Gilbert, J. A., 37. God, belief in, 321, 368. Goethe, 184. Gough, G. B., 86. Gowers, 70. Hadley, H. H., 86. Hale, E. E., 305. Hall, Stanley, 38, 192. Hallucinations, 73. Hamilton, Sir W. R., no. Hancock, 35. Harris, R. P., 43. Harter, N., 262. Herrick, S. S., 40. History in relation to religious psy- chology, 3. Hygiene and religion, 230, 250. Hypnotism and revivalist methods, 171. Hysteria, 70, 250. Ideals, religious, 338 et seq., 371- Immortality, belief in, 321. Insanity, 241, 264, 274, 38S. James, W. , 167, 416. Johnston, F. , 354. Jordan, D. S., 175. Joy, 136. Kaes, 150. Kennedy, H. , 40. Kingsley, Charles, 184. Lancaster, G., 201, 213, 264. Le Bon, 167. Lesshaft, 307. Lindley, E. H., 36. Livermore, Mary, 184. Lukens, H. T., 259. Malling-Hansek, 359. Marshall, H. R., 34S. Martineau, H., 184. Martineau, J., 192. Menstruation, 43. Miles, C., 349. Mill, J. S., 211. Missionary spirit, 256. Moll, A., 168, 172. Moody, 157. Morbidity, see Abnormal aspects. Mysticism, 330. Natural selection in religion, 399. Newness, sense of, 119, 125 et seq. Nutt, A. C., 213. Original sin, 61. Pathological aspects of conver- sion, 163. Paulsen, 9. Philosophy in relation to religion, 6. Psychology in relation to religion, 4. Puberty and conversion, ^"j et seq., 149, 206, 401. Quaternions, discovery of method of, no. Remorse as a motive to conversion, 52 et seq. Revivals, 53, 56 et seq., 96, 165, IJl et seq. Rhythm, 357. Roberts, C., 36. Robertson, F., 184. Royce, 9. Ruskin, 184. Sanctification, 375 et seq. INDEX 423 Scott, Colin, 148, 168, 217. Season and religious feeling, 359. Sexual differences in religious growth, 28 et seq., 52, 63, 65, 78, 81, 94, 104, 121, 123, 128, 192, 193, 198, 202, 205, 220, 222, 225, 236, 238, 241, 273, 280, 294, 312, 316, 320, 332, 343. 357, 371- Sexual instinct and religion, 147, 168, 206, 207, 401 et seq. Sexual temptations, 70, 206, 220., Sidis, B. , 163. Sin, sense of, 58 et seq., 69 et seq., 152, 163, 215. Smith, T., 112. Sociology in relation to religious psychology, 3, 145 et seq., 233- 'Spencer, Herbert, 4, 155. Storm and stress, 213 et seq., 240, 246, 364, 399. Sub-conscious element in conver- sion, lOI et seq. Suggestibility, 73, 81, 171. Sudden awakenings, 137 et seq. Temperament and religious experi- ence, 71. Theology in relation to religious psychology, 6. Titchener, E. B., 358. Tolstoi, 184, 261. Trance states, 168. Tylor, 4. Unconscious cerebration, 112. Unselfing, conversion as, 145. Vui-Pins, 150. Whitefield, 22. Will in conversion, iii. THE END Colston Sfi Coy. Limited. 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By Frank Waldo, Ph.D. Member of the German and Austrian Meteorological Societies etc.j late Junior Professor, Signal Service, U.S.A. With ii: Illustrations. " The present volume is the best on the subject for general use that « have seen." — Daily Telegraph (London). XXII. THE GERM-PLASM : A THEORY OF HEREDITY By August Weismann, Professor in the University o Freiburg-in-Breisgau. With 24 Illustrations. $2.50. " There has been no work published since Darwin's own books whic has so thoroughly handled the matter treated by him, or has done so much t place in order and clearness the immense complexity of the factors of heredit} or, lastly, has brought to light so many new facts and considerations bearin on the subject." — British Medical Journal. XXIII. INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. By F. Houssay. With numerous Illustrations. " His accuracy is undoubted, yet his facts out-marvel all romance. Thest facts are here made use of as materials wherewith to form the mighty fabric o evolution." — Manchester Guardian. XXIV. MAN AND WOMAN. By Havelock Ellis. Illus trated. Second Edition. "Mr. Havelock Ellis belongs, in some measure, to the continental school o anthropologists ; but while equally methodical in the collection of facts, he ii far more cautious in the invention of theories, and he has the further distinctior of being not only able to think, but able to write. His book is a sane anc impartial consideration, from a psychological and anthropological point o view, of a subject which is certainly of primary interest." — Athenatim. XXV. THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN CAPITALISM By John A. Hobson, M.A " Every page affords evidence of wide and minute study, a weighing facts as conscientious as it is acute, a keen sense of the importance of certaii points as to which economists of all schools have hitherto been confused anc careless, and an impartiality generally so great as to give no indication of hi [Mr. Hobson's] personal sympathies."— /"a// .ilfa// Gazette. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. XXVI. APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFER- ENCE. By Frank Podmore, M.A. . | " A very sober and interesting little book. . . . That thought-transference k a real thing, though not perhaps a very common thing, he certainly shows. " — Spectator, XXVII. AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY. By Professor C. Lloyd MORGAN. With Diagrams. " A strong and complete exposition of Psychology, as it takes shape in a mind previously informed with biological science. , . . Well written, ex- tremely entertaining, and intrinsically valuable." — Saturday Review. XXVIII. THE ORIGINS OF INVENTION : A Study of Industry among Primitive Peoples. By Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the United States National Museum. "A valuable history of the development of the inventive faculty." — Nature. XXIX. THE GROWTH OF THE BRAIN: A Study of THE Nervous System in relation to Education. By Henry Herbert Donaldson, Professor of Neurology in the University of Chicago. "We can say with confidence that Professor Donaldson has executed his work with much care, judgment, and discrimination." — The Lancet. XXX. EVOLUTION IN ART: As Illustrated by the Life-Histories of Designs. By Professo'r Alfred C. H addon. With 130 Illustrations. "It is impossible to speak too highly of this most unassuming and invaluable hook."— Journal Anthropological Institute. XXXI. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE EMOTIONS. By Th. Ribot, Professor at the College of France, Editor of the Revue Philosophique. " Professor Ribot's treatment is careful, modern, and adequate." — Academy. • XXXII. HALIyUCINATIONS AND ILLUSIONS : A Study OF THE Fallacies of Perception, By Edmund Parish. ■ " This remarkable little volume." — Daily News. XXXIII. THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. By E. W. Sc. TURE, Ph.D. (Leipzig). With 124 Illustrations. XXXIV. SLEEP : Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, ant Psychology. By Marie de ManaceYne (St. Petersburg). ; Illustrated. ' New York: Charles Scribnbr's Sons. XXXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DIGESTION. By A. LocKHART Gillespie, M.D., F.R.C.P. Ed., F.R.S. Ed. $1.50. Dr. Gillespie, who has long been known as an original investigator in this department of physiology, has in the present volume attempted to bring together all the facts and recent discoveries bearing on this subject of great scientific and practical importance. Dealing with the subject in much detail, as well as broadly and comprehensively, the book appeals both to medical specialist and general reader. The author shows that digestion is a process which occurs throughout animated nature, and beginning with digestion in plants, and describing many original and other experiments with carnivorous plants, he passes on to digestion in the lower animals, and then deals fully with the many complicated problems offered by digestion in the higher animals and man. The practical questions of diet are examined in their various aspects, and the influence of alcohol, tea, and other stimulants discussed, XXXVI. DEGENERACY: Its Causes, Signs, and Results. By Professor Eugene S. Talbot, M.D., Chicago. $1.50. This volume presents, in a simple and comprehensive way, the basis of fact on which the speculations of Nordau and others have been founded. It is the first book written in English by a competent authority dealing broadly with this subject. The author deals with more especial fulness with the signs of degeneracy in the head and face — ears, jaws, teeth, etc. — ^as those which he has chiefly studied, and which are of most general interest ; but he also discusses degeneracy in the body generally, as well as its mental forms. The chief causes tending to produce degeneracy in modern life are discussed — heredity, climate, foods, alcohol, education, etc. — and the methods of com- bating them considered. The book is fully illustrated, chiefly from original photographs. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. IBSEN'S DRAMAS. Edited by William Archer. l2mo, CLOTH, PRICE $1.25 PER VOLUME. " IVe seem at last to be shoivn men and women as they are ; and at first it is more than we can endure. . . . All Ibsen's characters speak and act as if they were hypnotised, and under their creator's imperious demand to reveal themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before . it is too terrible. , . . Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery, his remorseless electric-light, until we, too, have grown strong and learned to face the naked— if necessary, the flayed and bleeding— reality." — Speaker (London). Vol. I. "A DOLL'S HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH," and "THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY." With Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by WilliamArcher. Vol. II. " GHOSTS," " AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," and "THE WILD DUCK." With an Introductory Note. Vol. in. "LADY INGER OF OSTRAT," "THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND," "THE PRETENDERS." With an Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen. Vol. IV. "EMPEROR AND GALILEAN." With an Introductory Note by William Archer. Vol. V, " ROSMERSHOLM," "THE LADY FROM THE SEA," "HEDDA GABLER." Translated by William Archer. With an Introductory Note. Vol. VL "PEER GYNT: A DRAMATIC POEM." Authorised Translation by William and Charles Archer. The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronological ; the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in chronological order. " The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the present version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.), among the very best achievements, in that kind, of oui generation." — Academy. f "We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely Idiomatic." — Glasgow Herald. New York : Charlks Scribnrr'i! Snvs.