THE ART.

OF LIFE SERIES

Edward H oward G riggs, Editor

T h e Six th Sen se

ITS CULTI'ATION AND USE

CHARLES H . BRENTAurnon or wrrn G ODmrun. wow .

”

“mama .” wrru G ODmPRAYER.

”arc.

NEW YOR'

B . W H U E B S C H

I919

Cormcm, 1911’

BY B . W. HUEBSCH

First printing , November. 1911Second printing , March . 1912

Third printing , October. 1912Fourth printing . May , 1919

PRINTED INU. 8. A.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

THIS book was planned and promised to

the publisher more than three years ago.

Exacting duties have compelled the writerfrom time to time to defer the completionof his undertaking. The delay has beenprofitable in that it has afiorded opportunity

for the study of recent works on kindredtopics, which in some respects hasmodifiedand in some enlarged the original conception of the subj ect in hand. A long ocean

voyage at last has provided the quiet inwhich to write out these thoughts.

SS. Prinz Eitel Friedrich,

Gulf of Aden,8 'anuary,

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

THE SI'TH SENSE

IN RELATION TO HEALTH

IN RELATION TO THOUG HT

IN RELATION TO CHARACTER

IN RELATION TO RELIG ION

The Sixtb SemeCHAPTER I

THE SI'TH SENSE

BY the Sixth Sense I mean the MysticSense, or that inner perceptive facultywhich distinguishes man from the highestbelow him and allies him to the highestabove him. SO distinctive among createdObj ects is i t of man that it might

,not in

aptly, be characterized as the HumanSense . It is used for no one exclusivepurpose ; on the contrary it is only underits operation that man’s activities, one andall, become human . In its nature it differs essentially from the bodily sensesthough we are justified in thinking of it asa sense because its function is, like them , toperceive and to afford food for thought .The five bodily senses originally, in the

first stages of evolution, were, and, in theiru ltimate aspect are, one sense the

I3

14 The Sixth Sense

sense Of touch . By means of it plant,mollusc and worm relate themselves to

the universe Of which they are a part.By degrees the - single sense, in the evolutionary process , finds opportunity and oc

casion for specialization . Sight is ex

traordinarily sensitized touch by means ofwhich form and color. are perceived, andthe distant obj ect comes bowing to our

feet ; the stars, leaping across space, areconverted into intimate friends, andearth’s farthest horizon lies at our door .Hearing is touch localized and specialized SO as to be capable Of perceiving thevibrations caused by the impact of one

body upon another ; its enlarged capacityclassifies sound in such a way as to offerits mutations and subtleties for our use

and pleasure as the weaver Ofiers his

threads to the loom . Smell is that specialization of touch, uniquely delicate, supposed by Maeterlinck to be Still in its earlier stage of development in human kind,which responds to the stimulus Of thoseotherwise intangible exhalations calledOdor . Lastly, taste is touch specialized soas to discern the inner properties Of foodstufi ; taste is the testing sense . Meretouch determines the existence, specialized

The Sixth Sense 15

touch the character and niceties Of matteror the physical universe .As indicative Of the unity Of the animalsenses and the coOperative sympathy between them, it is noteworthy that when onesense is impaired or destroyed, the othersdiligently endeavor to supply its absence,the entire body playing the part as far as

possible of eye or car ,Or both, and each

remaining sense growing extraordinarilyacute SO as to take on somewhat of thecharacter of the most nearly affiliated or

the neighbor sense . The blindman can

almost see with cars and hands, the deafcan almost hear with eyes . The sensesthat are left strain, not without a measureOf success, to convey to the brain impressions for which they are not congenitallyadapted .

The organic differences in the bodilysenses, then, find a close unity in functionalsimilarity, all the sensory nerves groupingthemselves under the head Of touch . TheMystic Sense, likewise, first comes to ourattention as a simple faculty Of perception by which we gain cognition Of thatdepartment of reality that transcends bodily touch and its subdivisions, but studyreveals that its unity is ordered complexity,

16 The Sixth Sense

as in the case of all developed endowments . Broadly speaking it is the sensewhich relates man to the spiritual or psychic aspect of reality. It puts us into te

lation with the spiritual order of whichwe are a part . It finds room for exercise , gains its freedom, and reaches itshighest development in this sphere

, be

ginning operations at the point where thebodily senses are compelled by inherentl imitations to halt. It discerns the innermost character, use, value Of the Obj ective,and difierentiates between the human andthe animal estimate of things . Indeed ithas in it that which i s not of this world ororder . It soars beyond human and mun‘dane afiairs and steeps its wings in Divinealtitudes where the throne of God is set.Not only does it perceive but it also layshold of and appropriates that phase of reality which l ies beyond the unaided reach,or eludes the grasp, of all the rest of ourfaculties in their happiest combination, andtherefore of any one of them independently .

It takes the material gathered by physicalcontact with the world of sight and sound,and presents it to the m ind for rationalizing operations . More than that, it comesback freighted with wealth gathered in

The Sixth Sense I7

explorations in regions where neither bodynor reason can tread, converting life

’s dullprose into poetry and song.

The most alert and indispensable of endowments, it is at once sociable with theremainder of man’s faculties, external andinternal, and j ealously independent ofthem saving of human consciousness alone .In its higher stages of development it accepts suggestions fromall, dictation fromnone . Its manner is courteous and itsmode Of approach one of promptings andhints . The sphere Of every other facultyis its sphere where it is content to play themodest part of a handmaiden, never usurping functions already prov ided for, ai

though it has a sphere of its own whithernot even reason can follow . It is supplementary to all, contradictory to none .Without its exercise there can be no progress or growth . It has its origin in agroping instinct, its final development inorderly activities capable of increasinglyclear classification. Body, intellect, character, moral and rel igious , are under itsinfluence and dependent upon its beneficentoperations . It plays upon the body, contributing to its health and efficiency ; it giveswings to the intellect, making it creative

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and productive, capable of formulatinghypotheses and venturing upon speculation ;it converts the seemingly impossible intothe normal, bringing moral ideals withinreach Of the will, without which improvement in character would be a matter ofchance ; it unfolds the Divine to the human and forms a nexus between here andbeyond, now and to-morrow, finite and infinite, God and man . It looks not onlyup but down, making the nature outsideof us intelligible to the nature inside of usand friendly with it. I f it peoples thestars, it also makes a universe of the atom .

It is mysterious, recollective, emotional, intuitive, speculative, imaginative, prophetic,m inatory, expectant, penetrative . As itmoves up or down with equal freedom , so

it reaches backward or forward, is at

tached or detached at will, in its operations .The Sixth Sense, or, to be more accurate,the second group of senses, has its specialized functions, difficult as it is to analyzewith accuracy

‘

this most sp iritual endowment of human personality, the inner gi ftOf touch. It has specializations parallelto those of the bodily senses . Sight, hearing and testing are its functions . So clear

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eyed is it that it can see with the nicety ofan eye aided by them icroscope, so sensitiveto voices that the lowest whispers imparta message, so critical as to test values witha p recision and swiftness that surpass thetaste and smell which tell us what is sweetand what unsavory .

If it be argued that I am but dilatingon certain aspects of mind, I am not concerned to deny that all may be comprehended under that convenient blanket-word .

But they are as distinct from the rationalizing media as from the will .The nearest approach to a satis factorysubstitute for the term mystic sense interms of the reason is “ conceptual reason.

” It furnishes us with the thought Ofa faculty which has procreative or generative properties capable of being fertilizedby intercourse with that which is separatefrom and higher than itself . Its first activity is to lay itself over against thatwhich, though partaking of its own nature, is not itself. It is not self- fertilizingand can conceive or beget only after having perceived and apprehended .

1 It has

1 It is only partia l ly true to say that concept fol lowsupon percept. Their action is simultaneous morenearly than consecutive. Conceptualism

. as a comp lete system cannot perhaps stand but in Its origin it

20 The Sixth Sense

constant regard for an Obj ective and communication with it .The operation of the Mystic Sense issummed up in the single word faith,which is described as the giving substanceto that which is hoped for, the testing of

things not seen.

1 There is no obj ection toletting the word faith cover the wholeworking of the Mystic Sense, provided itis not restricted to a severely religiousmeaning. It is thus that it is commonlyunderstood, or at any ratewhen applied inother connections it is assumed to be theworking of a difierent faculty from thatexercised in the sphere Of religion. In itsdistinctively religious meaning, faith is theoperation of the Mystic Sense in its highestemployment. There is no One faculty thati s reserved exclusively for religious employment . The fact is that religious faithi s no more separate from the processes ofthe Mystic Sense which appropriate healthfor the body, hypotheses for the mind,working principles for the man of action,and ideals for the character, or independentof them, than the act of physical percep

was a hea lthy reaction against both nominalism andrea lism, as wel l as a mediator combining the good inboth.

1 Heb. xi : 1 .

The Sixth Sense 2 1

tion, which enables us to touch the stars, isseparate from that use of the sensorynerves which relates us to the book wehandle , or independent Of it. They are

both the result Of a single faculty, or groupof faculties, operating in difierent altitudes .Faith will be accepted in these pages as aphilosophic term . Thus we speak ofscientific faith, moral faith, and religiousfaith with equal appropriateness , meaningthe Mystic Sense operating respectively inthe interests of the Scientific, of the moral,and of the religious .The Mystic Sense has for its workshopthe uplands of li fe in the rarefied atmos

phere of ideas and ideals . It is at once asuper- sense giving us a bird’s- eye view of

the universe which is not permitted at closequarters, and a sub- sense bringing beforeour attention the contents hidden beneaththe surface of th ings . There are not twoworlds, obj ective and subj ective respec

tively, but two aspects of one worldthings as they are in their absolute and ultimate being, and things as they are relatively or as apprehended by our cognitivepowers . Our conception of the truth is adistortion or falls short of the truth, and itis our asp iration to bring about such a co

2 2 The Sixth Sense

incidence as will make the relation of sub

ject to Obj ect perfect . We draw the thingas we see it for the G od of things as theyare now, not to-morrow only, the sole di fference being that to morrow our paintingwill be truer to the original and conse

quently more artistic than now . All Oh

jective is immediately reduced by man, bysubconscious or conscious process, into sub

jective, so that we may for the sake of convenience talk of subj ective and Obj ectivephases Of reality, the subjective being human, partial, progress ive, the obj ective being divine, absolute, and final .There is an obj ective physical world andan obj ective psychic or spiritual world

,

the latter being immanent in the former,though not limited by it, so that every material Obj ect has Spiritual contents . Thespiritual is no more an inside without anoutside than the physical is an outside without an ins ide . Each has its phase of teality, though in the ultimate analysis thephysical is dependent for its value upon itsspiritual capacity. The physical has anon- sensible inside which to be discernedcalls for distinctively human as distin

guished from mere animal powers Of perception. Dimly in animal li fe there is a

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24 The Sixth Sense

ternal substance and form of a materialobject and the closer we are to it, thegreater the difficulty for the average character to gain cognition of its spiritual essence: How hardly shall they that haveriches enter into the ' ingdom of God,

” 1

Even those who place an undue valuationupon the material, whether possessed of

wealth or not, have a like difficulty in penetrating into the internal realm which liesbeneath and around as well as above andwithin the external .2 It is absurd for mento expect to sense the spiritual except withspiritual faculties . The physical world isperceived by a sensory apparatus of thesame substance as that of the physicalworld ; the spiritual world is perceived bya sensory apparatus of the same substanceas that of the spiritual world. There mustbe an inherent affinity between the thingapprehended and the organ apprehending .

Now the natural man receiveth not thethings of the Spirit of God ; for they arefoolishness unto him ; and he cannot knowthem because they are spiritually proved .

8

1 Mk. xzzg.2 Mk. z zz 2

2.

3 ‘I'vxucbs ”more: of: Mxerat rd Tov Hrehparos

roii Oeofi maple. yep air-G ion ,xal oh 66mm:

81 1 tmu ruu‘

is draxpin rac, 1 Cor, ii, 14,

The Sixth Sense 2 5

Reality is a term too Often confined tothat which can be expressed in terms ofbodily senses ; whereas it is that which hasexistence in heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth ,and which, apart from human perception,though in aminimum degree or passively,plays upon and sfiectsman and his universe, but which reaches its highest potentiality manward when, by the volitionaloperation of human faculties it is subjeetively apprehended and finds permanentplace in his consciousness . Reality is thatwhich supports and feeds the subconsciouslife by the pressure of its mere existenceor laws of being, but which is capable ofbestowing larger gi fts in proportion to thedegree in which it receives conscious adm ission into the activities of personal experience. It is a law of spiritual or

psychic, as well as of physical, existencethat every part is related to every otherpart and influenced by it through either attraction or energy. In the case of inanimate matter mere spacial propinquity ordistance determines the measure of attraction or energy of object upon Obj ect, butwhere sentient beings are concerned thereaction of conscious volition on environ

26 The Sixth Sense

ment is the determining factor regulatingthe degree of influence released .

The search for the real in internal processes cannot ignore the external . Conversely the activities of the workadayworld cannot summarily dismiss the in

ternal . 1 The physical senses have a modest but indispensable part to play under theprimacy of the Mystic Sense . The normaluse of the Mystic Sense does not make amystic. The health ily developed man ismystical though not a mystic . His dominating sense is that Of the spirit, not thatof the flesh . A mystic, technically defined,is a specialist in the subj ective or internal,just as a collector is a specialist in the oh

jective or external . There is no dangerin either extreme except so far as its votaryadopts an exclus ive attitude toward itsseem ing Opposite (which really is its complement ) or toward the balance of humanthought and li fe . A deliberate and persistent use of the Mystic Sense without tespect for the obj ective would be subversive

1 “True priority and superiority l ies, not with oneof these constituents against the other, but with thetota l subjective—obj ective interaction or resultant,which is superior

,and indeed gives their p lace and

worth to, those interdependent parts.”—'ON HOG BL’S

Mystical Element of Religion, vol . ii, p . 1 14.

The Sixth Sense 27

Of all progress and a reversion to chaos .The progress of thought consists in grad

ually separating the series of obj ective anduniversally valid, from that of subjectiveexperiences . In the measure that theirconfusion prevails, man is, to all intentsand purposes, mad ; and it is this note ofinsanity that characterizes medicine and teligion in their early stages. Dreams andreality are mixed up ; subj ective connectionsare objectified .

” 1 I f the Obj ective and thesubjective may not be divorced and set atodds against one another, neither may theybe confused . Both errors would result indisorder and hopeless perplexity .

The serious crux is how, in the realmof the spiritu al and the physically intangible, to distingu ish between the real andthe seeming, the true and the false . Thisit is the function of the Mystic Sense to doaided by the full complement of inner facu lties. In a measure the Mystic Sense, likethe bodily senses, acts automatically, butlike them it needs special training in orderto separate phantasm from reality, to determine values, and to grade and classi fyideals until they reveal themselves to beordered unity, not less but more mysterious

1 ’I‘

YERELL’S Christianity at the Cross Roads, p . 240.

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because more intelligible or apprehensibleby the whole man . The first principle tolay down is that no man can treat himselfas a unit or credit the findings of his Mystic Sense with absolute or final authorityuntil he has tried them by some valid corpotate test. Neither Sight, nor hearing,nor touch, used Without regard to the ex

perience of others and respect for it, canfail to lead us astray . The conclusions ofthe wisest and the competent register themselves from age to age, coming to us inthe shape of beneficent authority to prevent a man from repeating work that hasalready been done and well done . ' erification is not contemptuous Of authority,though he flouts authority, indeed, whoignores it in a process of individualistic experiments. Pure individualism at best canapprehend but a fragment of reality and atworst declines into eccentricity or even insanity. Those who are really educatedrecognize their relation to a social wholeand bring the results of their sense perceptions, before accepting thei r verdict, to betested by the age-long, man-wide experi

ences of humanity as formulated in the accepted conclusions of their generation andfound in its institutions and customs . Uni

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versal experience is never wholly but onlyapproximately infallible, yet accurateenough to be authoritative for correctivepurposes . By respectful attention to it, individual judgment is checked in possibleerror and at the same time is given opportunity to ofler its own contribution to thetotality of knowledge, a contribution whichmay endorse, modify, or enlarge that already reached . In this way only is so

ciety preserved from becoming a .mob of

eccentrics and fanatics, each whirling in hisown little circle . Commerce, art, science,letters, government, religion in shortevery department of l i fe you can th ink of

requires such a mode of procedure for theprotection of reality in its variedmanifestations and for the protection of the indiv idual against himself . But in no conditions is a soci al checking off of findingsmore essential than in the psychic or spiritual realm . Mystical experience organizes itself or is consciously organized in asufficient degree to givemen that high kindof freedom which comes to uswhen we actwith constant reference to the fact that weare members one of another, so that theexperience o f thehuman race is ours wherewith to enrich ourselves . A mystic of the

30 The Sixth Sense

typ e of St. Theresa, who could hardly seethe Obj ective in her rush past form to reachidea, could not be distinguished from theinmate of a madhouse who insists that histinsel crown is the diadem of a Napoleon,unless she interpreted her personal experience in relation to the spiritual consciousness of Christendom . Once,

” writesthis saint, when I was holding in my handthe cross of my rosary, He took it fromme into His own hand . He returned it ;but it was then four large stones incomparably more precious than diamonds : thefive wounds were delineated on them withthe most admirable art. He said to methat for the future that cross would appearso to me always, and so it did . The precious stones were seen , however, only bymyself .” 1 A madman would have omitted the last sentence . Her mystical experiencewas individual though it preservedfor its foundation a background of universal experience . It united her to her fellows, instead of separating her from them .

The law of use is as applicable to theMystic Sense as to the rest of the gi fts andendowments which make up the completeness of human personality . Its exercise

1 'uoted by 'ON HUGEL, vol . ii, p. r8.

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32 The Sixth Sense

elusion. We agree that mysticism is not everythingin any one soul, but something in every soul of man .

The entire passage reads as fol lows :Is there, then, strictly speaking, such a thing as a

specifica l ly distinct, se lf- suthcing, purely Mysticalmode of apprehending Rea lity' I take it, distinctlynot ; and that a l l the errors of the Exclusive Mysticproceed precisely from the contention that Mysticismdoes constitute such an entirely separate, comp letelyself- supported kind of human experience. Th is denial does not, of course, mean that soul does not

difier quite indefinitely from soul, in the amount andkind of the recollective, intuitive, deeply emotive element possessed and exercised by it concurrently ora lternately with other elements, the sense of the

Infinite with in and without the Finite springing upin the sou l on occasion of its contact with the Contingent ; nor, again, that these more or l ess congenita ldiflerences and vocations amongst souls cannot beand are not still further developed by grace andheroism into types of rel igious apprehension and l ife,so str ikingly divergent, as, at first sight, to seemhard ly even supp lementary the one to the other. But

it means that, in even the most purely contingentseeming sou l, and in its apparently but Institutiona land Historical assents and acts, th ere ever is, therecan never fail to be, some, however, imp l icit, howeversl ight, however intermittent, sense and experience ofthe Infinite, ev idenced by at least some dissatisfactionw ith the Finite, except as this Finitude is an occasionfor growth in, and a part- expression of, that Infinite,our true home. And, again, it means, that even the

most exclusively mystical - seeming soul ever depends,

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for the fu lness and hea lthiness of even the mostpurely mystical of its acts and states

,as rea l ly upon

its past and present contacts with the Contingent,Temporal, and Spacia l

,and with social facts and

elements, as upon its movement of concentration,and the sense and experience

,evoked on occasion of

those contacts or of their memories, of the Infinitewithin and around those finitudes and itself.

Only thus does Mysticism attain to its tru e, ful ldignity, wh ich consists precisely in being, not everything in any one soul, but something in every sou lof man ; and in presenting at its fullest, the amp lestdevelopment, among certain special natures with the

help of certain special graces and heroisms, or what,in some degree and form, is present in every tru lyhuman sou l, and in such a soul’s every, at a l l genuineand comp lete, grace- stimulated religious act and state.And only thus does it, as Partial Mysticism,

retaina l l the strength and escape the weaknesses anddangers of wou ld- be Pure Mysticism,

as regards themode and character or Rel igious Experience, ' nowledge, and Life.”

If my interpretation of this writer be correct, heterms that a recol lective

,intu itive, deep ly emotive

element ” which I conceive to be a mystic facu lty orsense. The fact that it pervades every part of humanpersona l ity does not disqua l ify it from claiming the

dign ity of a distinctive faculty. It bears a similarrelation to the higher endowments of persona litywhich the ether bears to light and to the ca l l ofworld to world . The Mystic Sense is the enablingfacu lty

,which makes man human. Its pervasiveness

does not detract from, rather does it enhance, its dis

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tinctness. To ca l l it an element seems to clothe itin a vagueness which its character does not merit .If man were merely a phase of matter, we cou ldemp loy the term element with propriety. That whichcan be only an element in a universe, at any ratemaybe a faculty or sense inman.

CHAPTER II

IN RELATION TO HEALTH

THERE is nothing so multiple in its composition, and yet nothing so seemingly simple, so unit- like a unity, as normal personality— a normal character englobed by anormal body. Normality is the productof a two- fold force, the true interrelationbetween the organs of the body and a similat interrelation between the inner facu lties, culminating in a rhythmic interactionbetween the two . The normal man actsin the completeness of his manhood in all

that he does, never adopting the rdle ofeither mere machine or mere ghost . In

SO far as the inside and the outside of manWork as a unity, the dignity of human personality manifests itself ; any departurefrom harmony approaches that dangerousborderland beyond which lies disintegration and disorder . Disease is a lack ofrhythm

,a note in the scale out of tune .

Health is harmony .

Up to the time that consciousness of ex

35

36 The Sixth Sense

istence awakens, the processes of li fe opcrate under the stimulus and protection ofthe human and physical environment whichsurround the infant. With the immediateeffect of suitable shelter and wholesomenourishment we are fairly conversant . As

to just what direct or indirect influencepsychic surroundings have upon the subconscious li fe of a baby, we are not in a position to dogmatize, though we can arriveinferentially at certain rational probabilities .Apparently the infant, and certainly thechild, is extraordinarily sensitive to subtleforces . Acting upon this supposition theChristian Church from the beginning, bya symbolic and sacramental act, has aimedto thrust children deep into the bosom of

God by the rite of baptism, and claimedfor them not only a place but a place ofchief importance in the spiritual society.

Instinctively the mother, with exquisite solicitude, whispers her ideals for the futureof her offspring into the ears of the babeat her breast, talking as though to one

whose consciousness were awake . In thisway Samuels have been raised to Israel .At the close of each day the mother b idsher child Sleep by singing lullabies and

Th\e Sixth Sense 37

hanging mystic poppies over wide- awakeeyes . She speaks in the highest type of

language, in poetry adorned with song, tothis little unconscious scrap of humanity .

In other words her mystic sense is pressing upon the mystic sense of her child asnaturally and fittingly as her arms foldthe infant body and her lips touch its cheek .

Unless positive proof to the contrary isadduced, it is safe to believe that it makesa great difference to the child’s after lifeof what sort its psychic environment is during its first years on earth , whether theminds about it are healthy, expressingthemselves healthily, whether the tone offamily li fe is hopeful and spiritual .Though it cannot finally determine thecourse that the child’s life will take, at anyrate it affords the best opportunity formaking it a worthy course . My convietion is, that the difference between goodand bad psychic environment for a babyis the same as that between healthy andunhealthy vegetable environment for ayoung plant . An infant abandoned by itsmother to the care of nurses and servants ,be the provision for its animal comfort andsafety what it may, begins life with a minimum of Opportunity. Man is not born

38 The Sixth Sense

mere animal but man from the first breath .

Therefore from the first breath he needsman’s surroundings . In order that hislatent character may have its best chance,he ought to be given the most congenialhuman environment available . If there isno conscious self, at any rate there is asubconscious self, struggling at a very earlymoment by baby smiles and frets, gropingsand babblings to utter itself . Psychologyseems to have reached at least this conclusion— that the subconscious is, that it isthe fundamental part of man, that it is hismost sensitive self, never relinquishingthat which it grasps and grasping everything that touches it.Psychic forces may influence m ightily

the , subconscious li fe of an infant and promote healthy character, but have they anyeffect on physical well being' The replywould seem to be that, i f at any time inthe span of a l i fetime they work beneficently in this direction, it is probable thatthey do so from the outset. It would besheer waste of time to adduce argumentsto prove that healthy minds conduce directly to healthy physique . The diflicultyis to find the limit of such influence, so vastis it. Physical well- being, however, is not

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40 The Sixth Sense

with physical splendor or count muscle su fficient in itself . Man by virtue of hismanhood can never live according to merelyanimal l aws. His animal nature itself isu ltimately weakened if he does . In proportion as he has fine physique he must devolop a finem ind and character . If not

, un

restrained pass ion and ruin stare him in theface . The body finds its full meaningand so its possibilities , only when the soulhas discovered itself and claimed its l iberty. It is then alone that a whole armyof anxieties and fears is scattered, leavingthe body free and joyously adventurous,ready to identify its movements with thoseof the soul . Consequently it is not illogical or untrue to say that the first requisitefor physical efliciency of a child is to insure that whatever its subconscious l ife isable to drink in Should be sweet, wholesome, and strong . The tone of domesticli fe, the character of the child

’s attendants,the whole expanse of human bosom onwhich it lies and from which it receivesnourishment, ought to be as near what onewould wish it to be if from the first thel ittle babe had a conscious as well as a subconscious self, and were a morally responsible and not a mere non-moral agent .

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There can be a healthy domestic environment for the keen- eyed, deep - seeing childonly when it has been preceded by a similar environment for the baby . What thetone was for the purely subconscious, i twill be for the conscious life when itawakes . Therefore even though parentsare skeptical of their influence upon infantsubconsciousness, they cannot dispense withattention to its character i f they hope tobring beneficial pressure to bear on thechild’s conscious life . From the first theymust learn to deal with a baby as a moralbeing, impressionable beyond observation .

When we turn to man’s conscious lifeand the relation between health of bodyand a healthy consciousness we are on moredemonstrable ground. Experience has

proved that our external and internal faculties work in sympathy with one another .I f the body is distressed, the inner consciousness droops ; if the inner consciousness becomes morbid or out of sorts, thebody, though not always actually falling ill,loses in efficiency . Yet, let it be added,the body is less able to bear psychic illnessthan the inner self to bear physical illness .The body can never tu rn psychic sufferinginto nerve and muscle, but the psychic na

42 The Sixth Sense

ture can weave malady into genius throughthe powerful operation of theMystic Sense .To be healthy is a commendable ambition . Being in good health, our desire isto become as immune as may be to disease ,or being ill to give ourselves the best chanceof recovery. Health is preserved by keeping body and mind in close relation tohealth- giving processes. It is not our concern to discuss in this connection questionso f diet, sanitation, hygiene, exercise andsimilar aids to the promotion of health .

Their value is of the first order and maynot be ignored or discounted . But justnow we are concerned with another partof human nature which has much to do indetermining our condition of body thesense which furnishes us with ideals .The obj ective of an ideal is found inthe idea flowing from the mind of God.

It is as real to the Mystic Sense as a floweris to s ight and smell . An ideal is the reflection of God’s idea and is distorted ortrue according as the sense which perceivesideas is healthy or diseased . The MysticSense relates us to ideas, and enables us totouch, test, see and hear them , as truly as ourbodily senses enable us to touch , test, seeand hear the world of matter, form and

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sound. A healthy ideal is a ' ital izingforce, an unhealthy ideal is an invitation todisease . Ideals are subjectified ideas .In the course of the development of that

most experimental of all sciences, medicine,not only has dosing been reduced to a minimum, but also the natural recuperativepowers of the patient have been discoveredand are relied upon . The physician triesto open, for the sick, doors into nature

’shealthiest rooms . The patient beingplaced in a ' italizing environment is ex

pected by the use of his will and MysticSense to respond to it. The phys icianalone can do but half thework . The will,and not only the willingness, to live, a mystical laying hold of the idea of health, isin all cases a valuable, in some an indispensable, factor in the process of rocovery. The suggestion of health predisposesto health ; the suggestion of disease isprovocative of disease . Medicine may beboth a material curative and a sacramentof health .

The habit of our day has been such as tocreate in us a marked pathological consciousness. The very process which, by

.

slow degrees, has been driving disease tothe wall, has produced in us a sensitiveness

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to the idea of disease that is inimical tohealth . The discovery of the causes ofdisease has peopled the imagination, evenof those who have never looked througha microscope, with an army of hostile germsto the obscuration of those superior influenceswhich conduce to well-being, until wehave become chronically nervous of thehidden perils which beset our path . Inc

significant pains are construed into thesymptoms of the last disease discussed inthe papers or the advertisement of a pro

prietary nostrum . Momentary fluctua

tions in health send us tripping with anx

ious brow to the doctor . Dabbling in pathology i s an undesirable occupation, es

pecially for the young . The wrappers ofpatent medicines, let alone the medicinesthemselves, have caused more agony thanpeace of mind and have been more provocative of disease than Of health . Happilywe are emerging from the patent medicinestage .A therapeutic consciousness ought to be

the normal consciousness . The forceswhich make for li fe are in excess of thosewhich make for death . The universewould go into steady declinewere not thedominant forces salutary, and li fe would

The Sixth Sense 45

fl icker out l ike the wick of a candle guttered in its socket . There is an inexhaustible fund of vitality open to man and weare competent to draw upon it so that weshall receive a maximum rather than a minimum . Part of the function of science isto put man into such a relation to the

nature outside of him as to place the wholesome and remedial at his disposal, preventing disease by immunizing him from it.It is the common laws of health which arethe most important. With the curious inconsistency which characterizes many human beings, we frequently seemen adher

ing to some vigorous regimen of secondaryor doubtful importance, while all the timethey are flagrantly disobeying some primary law of health . The unity betweentheouter and the inner necessitates not onlyan intelligent and scientific treatment butalso that which is mystical and more or

less mysterious . Prayer, which is at oncean appeal to the Source of Life to let loosesaving health in our direction and an Opening up of our being for the reception Of

hidden and unknown aid, is a higher formof psychic effort than either suggestion orauto- suggestion in that it includes both,though not precluding the concurrent use

The Sixth Sense

of either . Auto- suggestion looks only forself- induced benefit to the patient by application to an impersonal ideal ; prayerdoes not think merely to apprehend a passive or indifferent remedy, but also to beapprehended by healthful, forceful Personality, like but superior to our own . Aprayer to the ether would have in its reflexeffect a totally different influence on thepetitioner from a prayer to what was conceived to be a personal God . Similarlythe quality of the virtue which is the resultof mere ethical culture is as different fromthat which is the product of correspondence with the Christian’s God as cottonis from linen . Nor is it that God is inactive until we pray . He is operating to theuttermost that our listless or passive orantagonistic personality will allow . Thehighest personality can do his best tothe obj ect Of his love only when the. latteradopts a responsive and co- operative atti

‘ tude . The feeble spot in much, i f notmost, prayer, is that it asks without importunity, or importunes without appropriating . The Mystic Sense must reach up untilit feels the hand containing the gift

,and

take the gi ft as its own . Auto- suggestionis a lame term indicating the application of

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The Sixth Sense

by being cheerful, hope by being hopeful,calmness by being calm, healthymindednessby being healthyminded. This is the workof the Mystic Sense living in the realm of

vigor even when the body is in distress.When the Mystic Sense goes exploring inhigh altitudes it never comes back emptyhanded. Even when it fails to return withhealth of body, it holds in its grasp healthof mind . A bl ithe spirit in a feeble bodycan accomplish more than a sluggish spiritin a robust body . There are two kindsof healthymindedness temperamentaland acquired . The latter is the most powerfu l and may be had by anyone who cultivates his Mystic Sense.The extent to which the Mystic Sense

works toward a cure cannot be formulated.

It varies with conditions . O f this we canbe assured . It is always salutary, frequently indispensable Diseases caused orinduced by an abuse or morbid use of theimagination cannot be banished withoutthe aid of the Mystic Sense as the chiefagent. The imagination must be cu redbefore the sickness can be cured, and thereare instances when the cure of the imaginatimif the cure of the disease. That is

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none the less a disease, the seat of whichis in the psychic, rather than in the physicalpart of self.Two things remain to be said . First,our day is laying a dangerous accent onthe value of mere phys ical li fe in man . Ittends to foster physical self- consciousnessand is an aspect of degrading materialism .

All the efforts being put forth in the direction of making it possible for the physically feeble to surv ive, are dangerous, umless followed up by commensurate effortsto make them fit as characters . Mere existence and mere longevity are false gods .It is haply justifiable formen of low

breed, who honestly think this l i fe the onlyone, to grasp at all its available gi fts, andstruggle to retain it on any terms for aslong a period as may be . But not soamong those who have risen to a knowledge of the meaning of immortality, evenin its lesser aspects, of the perpetuation ofthe nation and the race , and the persistenceof a man’s work and influence amongmenafter he himself has vanished . For suchthere is a higher good than mere life, besidewhich mere survival looks cheap andworthless .

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A man must l ive, we justifyLow shift and trick to treason high,A l ittle vote for a l ittle goldTo a whole senate bought and sold,

By that self- evident rep ly.

B ut is it so' Pray tel l me whyLife at such cost you have to buy'In what rel igion were you toldA man must l ive'

There are times when a man must die,Imagine

,for a battle- cry

,

From soldiers, with a sword to hold,From soldiers

,with the flag unrol led

,

This coward’s whine, this l iar’s l ie,Aman must l ive ' 1

There is, however, a type of heroismwhich is not as uncommon as it seems to befor it is hidden the type to which 'ipling refers when he says :

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on

,when there is nothing in you

Except the wi l l which says to them : Holdon 'i

and once more we quote from anotherwriterLet us, for one thing, never forget that

1 CHARLOTrE PER' INS STETSON’S In this our World.

The Sixth Sense 5 1

physical health is not the true end of hu

man life, but only one of its most importantmeans and conditions . Death mayand should be risked, the slow but certainundermining of the physical health may belaudably embarked on, i f only the mindand character are not damaged, and if theend to be attained is found to be necessaryor seriously helpful, and unattainable byother means. ” 1

Secondly, special and mystical means ofpromoting or regaining health must haveas a background the accumulated knowledge and scientific skill of the day . Ifthere are individual exceptions here andthere

,they go to prove the rule . We can

no more ignore the history of medical andchemical science, the findings of the microscope and laboratory, without disaster, thanwe can cut our country Off from the traditions

,laws and customs of yesterday with

out similar results . On the other hand,it is at least equal folly to flout or discredit the mystical experience of the ages .Human life, individually and corporately,i s a unity, and due recognition must be

given to all that goes to make it up .

1 The Mystical Element of Religion, vol . 11,pp . 57,

CHAPTER III

IN RELATION To THOUG HT

THE mind includes the Mystic Sense insomewhat a similar way to the manner inwhich the body includes the physical senses .But the Mystic Sense can be, indeed mustbe, considered as a distinct faculty havinga peculiar function in the formation of thatproduct of the mind called thought, whichis “ the effort to win over facts to ideas ,or to adjust ideas to facts . ” 1 The Mystic Sense can and does operate when therationalizing faculty is reverently silent,and by its operation prepares new materialfor pure reason to consider .There is no specifically intellectual organ . It is the whole man which appre

hends knowledge just as it is the wholeman and not an exclusively religious partof him, which apprehends and is appre

hended by eternities and infinities. It ispopularly supposed that science and math

1 ROYCE’S The World and the Individual. FirstSeries, p. 5 8.

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ematics call for the exercise of one set offaculties, and philosophy and religion an

other . Whereas the truth is that the samefaculties are used for all alike in prettymuch the same relation to one another .The Mystic Sense is as indispensable to science as it is to piety . Its method of operation is precisely the same in the one sphereas in the other.We can best appreciate the important

part the Mystic Sense plays in science by asurvey of the foundations of accepted scientific fact . The whole body of ourknowledge concerning the material universe is constructed upon a few ultimates,chief among them being the ether and theatom . The physical senses, so busy in thatworkshop of science, the laboratory, ceaseto be important when we deal with thesefundamentals . The discoverer of ethernever perceived it by touch, taste, smell,sight or hearing . Newton postulated it because he said it was a necessity, exactly aswe postulate the existence of God. Howcould there be attraction across the measureless spaces which separate worlds i fthere were not some intangible substance'The ether was therefore discovered to or

der by the Mystic Sense and accepted be

54. The Sixth Sense

cause it proved a good working hypothesis .We are solemnly told by physicists that it isan “ elastic solid,

” a “ pervasive fluid,” a

“ tenuous substance .” And yet when wechase this elusive something into a cornerwe find it

’

to be that which undulates,” a

form of motion well, so is a field mouse 'Again the atomic theory, first conceived

by the Greeks, was restated by Dalton morethan years later, who brought i tdown from the clouds to the laboratoryand factory .

” But neither Dalton noranyone else ever touched an atom, saw anatom, heard an atom, smelt an atom, ortasted an atom, ultimate of matter that itis . The physicist cl aims, however, thatthough he cannot handle or see them , theatoms and molecules are as real as the icecrystals in the cirrhus clouds that he cannotreach as real as the unseen members ofa meteoric swarm whose death glow is lostin the sunshine, or which sweep past usunentangled in the night that the atomsare in fact not merely helps to puzzledmathematicians, but physical realities .

” 1

All this may be so. Nevertheless both theether and the atom are so little material1 See MACI-‘IE’S Science, Matter and Immortality, anadmirable volume on this entire topic.

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56 The Sixth Sense

philosophers , exploring the unseen, whichfirst descried it on the horizon as the sailorat the masthead spies the distant land.

Darwin was the helmsman who steered theship to port . He rationalized it and applied it as a working hypothesis . It is instructive to note that Darwin began hiscareer with a rather acute sense of the mystical . He had a keen appetite for poetry,and pictures, and the music in ' ing

’s College Chapel “ gave him intense pleasure,so that his backbone would sometimesshiver. ” 1 He even began preparation forHoly Orders . In later li fe the intereststhat meant so much to him in youth died .

My mind,” he says,

“ seems to have become a kind of machine for finding genera llaws out of large collections of facts, butwhy this should have caused the atrophyof that part of the brain alone, on whichthe higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive .A man with a mind more highly organizedor better constitu ted than mine, would not,I suppose , have thus suffered ; and i f I hadto live my li fe again, I would have madea rule to read some poetry and listen tosome music at least once a week ; for per

1 DARWIN’S Autobiography.

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haps the parts of my brain now atrophiedwould thus have been kept active throughuse . The loss of these tastes is a loss ofhappiness, and may possibly be injuriousto the intellect, and more probably to themoral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature . ” It would bemore accurate, perhaps, to explain this loss,not by atrophy but by too narrow specialization. His Mystic Sense and powerfulimagination were not dead. They werecentred on a single object . Having developed his Mystic Sense in one or all theways open to him, a man may abandon itsuse in every direction but one . Christianworship, poetry, music prepare the MysticSense for that daring creation of hypotheses characteristic o f Darwin . Withouthis power of hypothesis he could never havebecome more than a mere collector of thej ackdaw order. He is his own best witness to the truth of this assertion. Hesays, I have steadily endeavored to keepmy mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved ( and Icannot resist forming one on every sub

ject) , as soon as facts are shown to beopposite to it,

” adding that he could not

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remember a single first formed hypothesis which had not after a time to be givenup or modified .

”

It is one of the chief functions of theMystic Sense to present hypotheses . Without hypothesis the reason is a shorn Samson . A goal must be postulated, otherwisethe wood could not be seen for the trees,and the intellect would be hopelessly lostin a tangle of underbrush and smotheredby the weight Of its own learning . Whiletheory is aimless and impotent without ex

perimental check, experiment is dead without some theory passing beyond the limits '

of ascertained knowledge to control it . iHere, as in all parts of natural knowledge ,the immediate presumption is strongly infavor of the simplest hypothesis ; the mainsupport, the unfailing clue, of physical science is the principle that, nature being arational cosmos

,phenomena are related on

the whole in the manner that conceptualreason would anticipate .” 1 Generalizationof a tentative character precedes andgives a starting point for induction . Hy

pothesis is more often the child of intuitive1 Sir 'OSEPH LARMOR in his W ilde Lecture ( 1908)

quoted by Sir OLI'ER LODG E in Reason and Belief, pp.172 .

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processes which capture thought by quickassault than o f slower and more analyzableforces . First comes hypothesis, then theaccumulation of data , finally, when allavailable evidence is in, rejection and theadoption of fresh hypothesis, ormodification, or verification .

“ A bundle of disconnected facts is only the raw material foran investigation : their mere collection isthe very earliest stage in the process ; andeven while collecting them there is nearlyalways some system, some place, some ideaunder trial . ” 1 The spiritual contents ofthe physical universe are, in part, evolution,the ether, the atom and such like . Theybear material names, but they are ideas, outof reach of our sensory nerves, and capableof being perceived, first dimly and thenclearly, only through the Mystic Sense .They form the allegorical department ofscientific thought, and are to the reality asthe Apocalypse is to the ' ingdom ofHeaven .

It would be without special gain,how

ever easy, to multiply illustrations of theprincely place which the Mystic Sense holdsin scientific research . Let us, therefore,turn for a moment to mathematics with its

1 Reason and Belief, p . 1 81 .

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array of imperturbable digits and prosaicfacts. No sooner does the mathematicianbegin to move, than he finds it necessaryto call to his aid the self- same faculty,which furnishes the physicist with his etherand atoms

,and enables the worshipper to

pray . Else how could he ex lore the fourthdimension, and define a inc as havinglength without breadth, or a plane su

perficies as having only length and breadth,or a point as having no parts ' Itis not astonishing that the mathematician, Lewis Carroll,

” was the author ofthose most delicious imaginative worksof immortal fame ,

“ Alice in Wonderland and “ Through the LookingGlass . ” His vocation prepared andtrained him for his avocation, and his avocation gave him new efficiency in his vocation . That which made him able to writethe story of dreamland equipped him as anable scholar— the use in proper relationto his other mental gi fts of the MysticSense . Similarly it is not surprising, butto be expected that Bacon, Pasteur, and' elvin were, each in his own degree, re

ligiousmen . They are the normal men ofscience, La Place, Huxley, and Haeckel

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being eccentrics and developed in a lopsided way.

Invention, to turn to the department ofpractical science, relates the same story .Long before men saw, they dreamed . Thelocomotive was a vision before it was afact ; the aeroplane began as an idea , stinging men into adventurous experiment, before it spread its wings above the earthmen talked across vast spaces in thoughtbefore the earliest cable ticked its message,or the wireless system enthralled us by itswizardry . The Mystic Sense is propheticand sees to-morrow as though it

'

were today, dimly first and then with increas ingclearness . Without much dim appre

hension, no clear perception ; nothing ismore certain than this . ” 1

Still once more, when we turn to literature the Mystic Sense is a pole- star . History is a museum of the cu rios of yesterday,1 The Mystical Element of Religion, vol . 11

,p. 2 65 .

The author quotes ' ANT we can be mediatelyconscious of an apprehension as to which we have nodistinct consciousness .” “ The field of our obscureapprehensions, - that is, apprehensions and impressions of which we are not directly conscious, a lthoughwe can conclude without doubt that we have themis immeasureab le, whereas clear appreh ensions constitute but a very few po ints within the comp lete extent of our menta l l1fe.”

62'

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a pile Of bones, a series of occurrences, acollection of bald facts as cold and bareas a heap of pebbles, until the Mystic Senseenters the sterile valley and brings with itthe breath of li fe . An idiot with a memory can collect past facts as easily as a weetoddler can collect shells on the sea shoreand to as good purpose . But it needs aman who, however vast his stock of information, possesses a developed Mystic Senseto classify facts and reveal their insides .Facts never tell the truth to an unimaginative mind . There is a higher form ofaccuracy and a deeper presentation of reality than a bare statement. Figures andprose, taken alone, are blind guides .In normal childhood the Mystic Sense

gets admirable training through the poetryand imaginative literature that belongs tothe nursery in every nation . It is justlyconsidered improper to confine a child’seducation to the multiplication table, sci

entific statement, religious dogma, and thememorizing of historic fact. The kindergarten, be its merits or de fects what theymay, is an endeavor to rouse the youngmind to accurate observation and calculation through the imaginative faculty Al

legory, fable, and multiplied illustration

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64 The Sixth Sense

of theMystic Sense, which runs wild unlessdisciplined, was born earlier than moresober offspring of the mind. Poetry is theparent of prose. The habit of the nurseryor schoolroom is the reproduction on asmall scale of the method of historyfirst poetry, then prose . He ru les a nation who furnishes it with songs . Thereis no firmer foundation for national li fethan a great legendary epic or a garland offolk songs . The better, i f not the larger,part of the Old Testament is poetic .Even the historical books do not pretendto be history as Gibbon and Green are history. Legend and history had not beendistinguished from one another in thosedays . Legend is usually elaborately colored interpretation of fact where the actual occurrence has been lost in the interpretation, to such an extent that it can never berecovered or can only be guessed at. Bysubjective process, somewhat akin to reflec

tion or digestion, the objective gains a newand transfigured self apart from and in

dependent, it may be, Of the original oh

ject. Thus legend is over- subjectified history . The outside is ignored for the sakeof the inside .Poetry and wholesome fiction must find

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permanent place in the li fe of a normalman . Do not delude yourself into thinking that your chief or only guides in lifeare logic and sense perception . They arenot. Intuition and sentiment lead youtwice for every once these others do . It isso much more comfortable, not to say honest and reasonable, to acknowledge franklythe primacy of your leaders, than to followthem and pretend all the while that you arefollowing other guides, which is a speciesof disloyalty . Scientist, inventor, mathematician, man of letters , alike are not quitetrue to fact when they claim that pure reason and an exclusive process of inductioncontrol their mental Operations . I wouldraise the question whether there is any suchthing as the exclus ively inductive method.

Is it not truer to speak of the deductiveinductive than of the inductive' The

Mystic Sense, with its adventurous and

sometimes blundering progress, holdsso important a place that without it logic andinduction would be as grist without a mill .To reach knowledge by “ pure reason ” isas imposs ible as to reach the sun with a

stepladder . Even supposing it were possible to bring bare reason over against baldfact, the result would reach only a degree

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beyond the achievement of a pig thatcounts, or a j ackdaw that gathers a storeof glittering obj ects .I have heard scrupulous people complainof the effect of fairy lore, nursery fables,and imaginative traditions like that ofSanta Claus, upon child li fe . It may be aquestion to consider, but it is dealing with amote rather than with a beam . Cheapcurrent literature, and the psychologicallyfalse story, which is characteristic of manyof our magazines, are far more of an injury to heart and mind than the imaginative excesses of the nursery. The Oh

jection to the latter is not in the substance,but in the unnecessary attempts to deceiveand to confuse obj ective and subj ective inthe child mind. Santa Claus is a harmlesscreature viewed as the Spirit of Christrnas.

When he is turned into a chimney god towhom written or spoken prayers are Of

fered, it is another matter . Who can withstand the pathos Of the little sister’s death,resulting from her petition before the fireplace for a new toy for her baby brother 'The flames took her and turned her into aburnt sacrifice to Santa Claus .Supply is usually responsive to demandand the amount of imaginative literature

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and versi fying in the journals of the day isa fair indication o f the appetite for thatwhich stimulates the Mystic Sense in letters . Also its hectic character is indicative of the wild state of the psychic lifeof the readers. The normal is counteduninteresting, and the abnormal, in incident and character, is portrayed . Asteady diet of such reading leaves unhealthyblotches, indel ible and disfiguring, on human li fe . Even in more serious literaturethe story of the abnormal may be giventoo great prominence. ' aluable as thelate Professor James’s 'arieties of Reli

gions Experience may be, it has the faultof studying the abnormal as though it werethe ordinary, leaving the great stretchesof healthy religious experience practicallyuntouched . If a physiologist were to givehis main attention to men with one greenand one brown eye, or with the heart onthe right instead of the left side, or somekindred peculiarities, the sum total of hisresearch would not contribute much to ourknowledge of the normalman.

To conclude : every man who respectshis mind

,be his vocation what it may, has

need to guard his Mystic Sense from defilement, and afford it opportunity for de

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velopment. In what is technically knownas education great stress is laid on proportion and subj ect matter. This is noless a necessity in maturer l i fe than it isin youth . The same result ensues uponreading anything that comes to hand, thatensues upon eating anything that comesto hand. SO important a thing is it, notonly that we should be able to create hypotheses, but also that our hypothesesshould be sound, that we must furnish ourMystic Sense with the same safeguardsand stimulus that we afford our physicalsenses.

IN RELATION TO CHARACTER

G OOD character is the reaction upon thewhole sel f caused by the Mystic Senseas a habit ' isioning, and the will claiming, the excellent. It is the result on personality of a sustained effort to transcendthe existing relation to li fe and its conditions, a state of chronic dissatisfaction withthe progress and achievement of themoment, which makes the good mediocre bycontrasting it with the superior and cov

eting the best conceivable as man’s right

and heritage .The Mystic Sense is always finding amore excellent way . Excepting whentaught to play casuistical tricks, it does notlook for the conventionally proper, or restcomfortably in it. 1 It launches out into

1 “The wea lthy class in Rome and a l l over Ita lybegan to conform to

O

that conventiona l code of proprtety by wh 1ch the r1ch seem a lways dest1ned, in theprogress of civi l ization, to become more and moreenslaved

,til l fina l ly they lost a l l feel ing for what is

serious and genuine in l ife. The new generation fol69

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that noble freedom which, from a groupof probabilities, selects that which is

farthest removed from suspicion of selfish considerations and promises ultimately the best social resu lts . On theother hand it is not disregardful of the accepted code Of morals . This it takes asits foundation, individual izing it for personal use, and boldly submitting propositions for improvement to the social conscience for approval, modification, orrej ection. Such approval, modification, orrej ection is never a purely formal matterregistered in the dictum of a tribunal butrather the culmination of a process akin,in the moral sphere, to that which

,

is

termed natural selection in the physicalsphere .

lowed their example with alacrity, and preached thenew conventions with a passionate vehemence whichmust have been high' exasperating to those of theirseniors who were still attached to the simp l icity ofprimitive manners . Amongst those who protestedagainst this development there was

, however, oneprominent figure of the younger age, Marcus PorciusCato, a man of rich and noble fami ly, and a descendant of Cato the Censor. His puritan spirit re

volted against the tyranny of fashion to which thegolden outh of Rome wished to make him conform ;he won d wa lk in the streets without shoes or tunic,to accustom himself

,as he said

,on ly to blush at thin s

wh ich were shamefu l in themselves, and not mere yby convention .

—FERRERO’S G reatness and Decline ofRome, vol . i, pp. 1 35 , 1 36.

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72 The Sixth Sense

acter is thus bound up closely with individual personality and is never abstract, asmorality is in the science of ethics . Character is created and disclosed by that phaseof experience in which the Mystic Sense isbusied in photographing ideals on the filmmonopolized by the actual to the discomfiture and obliteration of the latter .Better to-morrows are obtruded on poorto- days , partly by virtue of the fact thatthe Mystic Sense is naturally in constantcontact with the ideally best, sensing andappropriating it just as the body, withoutconscious effort on our part, senses and appropriates light and air, and partly because, either feebly or vigorously, mostmen claim for themselves by deliberatevolition a larger li fe than th at which is.

The possession of character is the solejustification of self- respect . Self- respectensues upon the growth of character, andis to character what perfume is to theflower. It is due to the consciousness ofhaving within ourselves that which isworthy not mere moral acquiescence butsomething we have made pecu liarly our

own by active effort. It is a high formof the consciousness which inspires an inventor when he has constructed a p iece

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of mechanism . Self- respect is a witnessto our having' been individualized and isindifferent to external possessions or aughtthat is our own by virtue of favor andchance rather than by merit. Self- respectruns into self- conceit and stagnation whenit rests content with that which is . Itnever dawdles in its movements nor loafson the street corners . Self- respect becomes self- contempt ’ and self- abasementwhen our attention is turned from our cherished ideals and actual progress, and fixedupon our defects and failures . Penitenceis not a bar but a necessity to characterand its fragrant eflluence, self- respect.

Character calls for and expects communal respect in the same degree that it receives self- respect. Reputation shouldbe commensurate with character. It ispossible for men to have the unmeritedrespect of their fellows without havingself- respect . This is due to the practiceof deceit, conscious or unconscious, whichenables them to simulate character andhave appearance without corresponding reality. To theman of character, i t is astruly a pain to be overestimated as to beunderestimated . He can afford to losehis reputation, though he can never be

74. The Sixth Sense

exempt from the keen pain involved . Inthe process Of achieving character, thegreat frequently, i f not always, have toendure the withholding of respect on thepart of the community. Seldom does aman make a contribution to progress without being temporarily at least discreditedby those Whom most Of all he is aimingto benefit . Self- respect towers at such moments . A man of character will trust himself when all men doubt him but make allowance for their doubting, too ; he willwait and not be tired by waiting, or beinglied about, won

’t deal in lies, or beinghated won’t give way to hating.

1

Ideals become tasks and tasks becomecharacter in social experience . A talent,

” says Goethe , shapes itself in stillness, but a character in the tumult of theworld .

” “ That which would have te

mained only a quality in ( our Lord ) , i fHe had stayed in the desert, becomes alife when He goes forth into the world .

”

The ultimate test of a man’s worth is hischaracter and not his degree of morality- his power of volitional reaction uponenvironment, objective and subj ective .Everyman at some time during his ca1 ' IPLING

’S If

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reer, most men for a considerable portion of it, and many from beginning to end,— covets character . Those who fail toclaim it for themselves seldom fail to ad

mire it in others . Frequently they put asmuch effort into pretending they have it aswould win for them the real thing . Theypay the price of gold for tinsel . Characterhas commercial value and sometimesmen are honest according to law solelybecause it is politic, or polite according to social requirement because it pays .But the honesty and courtesy of suchmen are not virtues . They are handmaidens of covetousness . They contribute nothing to self- respect. They have nomoral content, and serve only to aid in bolstering up a vicious characteristic . However, it is a tribute to the kingliness ofcharacter that, either for its market valueor because of its inherent worth, menclothe themselves in its appearance whenthey do not seek the substance .The substance may be had by everyman Man not only is , but also acknowledges himself to be, responsible for whathe is . He makes the confession when hekeeps his worst self from the public gazeeven though it promises him no special

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gain . The extreme to which the sens e ofpersonal responsibility and accountabilitygoes is evidenced by the fact that, though

for others we find it difficult to believein the closing of the possibility of self- improvement and ultimate loss fixed and final,many, perhaps most of us, think and act inour own case as though we at least shallbe held strictly accountable for our character and reap as we live . If we had noresponsibility for what we were and did,there would be no room for shame, werewe to be publicly known to be exactly whatwe are . Rob Henley’s poem of its defiant note and we are in the presence ofsober fact

It matters not how stra it the gate,How charged w ith punishments the scrol lI am the Master of my fateI am the Capta in of my soul .

Character, like fruit, gets rich flavorthrough liv ing in a climate of extremeswhich give robustness by threatening veryexistence . The story of the transgressionof Adam and his consort is illustrativerather than singular . The temptation setwas the very stiflest to which human li fe,being what it is, could be subj ected— a

demand for self- discipline and obedience

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to mysterious law. It is interesting thatthe first recorded stra in put upon the human will was not to do rather than to do .

Seemingly it was the limitation Of freedom, the restriction of choice, the narrowin

’

g of experience . In no other conditions could man have had a chance togain character . Had our first human an

cestors won their day without lapse, everysucceeding generation would have had todo the same . You cannot inherit character . You must win it. Temptation isnever eliminated from human li fe, as weknow it . Its conquest in one form opensthe door to its appearance in another form .

Our earliest human ancestors havingknown the higher chose the lower . Butthis did not, either in their own case or inthat of their Offspring through a thousandgenerations, close the door to the attainment of character . Human li fe begins inconditions which threaten character andtherefore becomes eligible for character .The complaint that there are those in theworld who, because of hopeless environment, never have an opportunity, finds

‘

sympathetic echo in every heart, but it doesnot absolve us from responsib ility to ourown opportunity .

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Much is made of heredity by those whoknow little or nothing of the controversieswhich gather about the study of its operation . The popular interpretation presseshard upon its thorns and forgets even theexistence of its blossoms . The sins of

the fathers are visited upon the childrenunto the third and fourth generation,

” isthe dominating thought which, by exclusive consideration, diseases the mind of

many a man until his whole imaginativenature is employed in the service of somecongenital, or supposed congenital, weakness to make himits victim . In this wayfatalism is induced. Fatalismis a diseaseof the Mystic Sense which substitutes acquiescence for reaction It is the strawcommitting itself to the river, not the oarsman using the current to his own advan

tage . Acquiescence is too tame a virtuefor man, i f indeed it be a virtue at all .Whatever credit we give to heredityfor endowing us with the tendencies of ourevil forbears , we must give it equal creditfor endowing us with those of our goodforbears . If you are determined to befatalistic, be so fairly, recognizing the possible transmission of every kind of tendeney . Conscious acceptance of gifts of

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80 The Sixth Sense

in three short sentences . When we knowmore certainly the mechanism by whichheredity Operates we shall be better ableby eugenics and physiological or mechanical processes to combat its evils and fosterits benefits . In the meantime there is nocall for us to stand idle . If man weremere animal it would be another matter,but he is not. His Mystic Sense, whichlinks him to a superior order, has steadilydifferentiated him from all below him . Ithas enabled himto transcend environment .By means of it he can acquire charactereven i f the laws of transmission Shouldforbid him to pass it on to his offspringby congenital endowment. It is a finerand stronger thing to improve steadily thetradition of family or race by a series ofsuccessive personal conquests and achievements than to gain exemption from eviltendencies by the more or less mechanicalprocess of procreation . Release fromtemptation is not necessarily a benefit, andis never as productive of character as thegift of ability to defeat it . Frequentlyall that is needed is inspiration, mysticaland human, to enable aman to rise abovehis evil inheritance and habit Evil tradition is as real and destructive a phase of

The Sixth Sense 8I

heredity as inborn weakness, whereas onthe other hand noblesse oblige. It israther the tradition of the family trait ofintemperance than a transmitted physicalpeculiarity that keeps the line of drunkardsunbroken . Children must not be allowedto suppose that they can be excused fromstruggle . Being prepared for all temptstions as a normal part of experience theyare least likely to become victims of any :being made expectant of all virtues, theymay perchance glean some .Our environment is our opportunity,particularly in those spots where it is uncongenial and threatening . To chafe andfret is to increase the inimical possibilitiesof difficulty. To think of it except withthe intention of mastering it is weakeningand depressing. To remove it with our

own hands rather than have another re

move it, i f it be moveable, or, should it beimmoveable, to weave it as material intoour scheme of li fe, using its rough threadsto the last strand, is to achieve character .A man must either fit his burden to hisback or his back to his burden, i f he desires to remain man . They are rare exceptions in mankind who have not capacityfor so doing, i f not by themselves, at any

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rate in a sympathetic social setting . Aburdened life by the free use of theMysticSense may become a privileged li fe . Introduce fearlessness and experimental curiosity into hardship , and you get romancewhich keeps the wings of life moving andmounting, and makes the world of menaround look up in aspiring wonder .

Th ere is no storme but th isOf your owne Cow ardise

That braves you out ;You are the storme that mocksYour selves ; you are the rocksOf your owns doubt

B esides this feare of danger, ther’s

danger here ;And he that here feares danger, does

serve his feare.” 1

The Mystic Sense has an inner ear.Through it conscience delivers its messageby means of which we come to know andunderstand the meaning of ought andought not. Ready response to conscienceis to be coveted above all things, especiallywhere conscience has been trained andillumined . A friend once wrote me , a fewdays before his death, that he had cometo see that what pretended to be education

1 CRASHAW.

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was no education at all unless it included'

the development of conscience . But mereknowledge of right and wrong, ought andought not, does not impart goodness . Tobe aware that vice injures and virtueblesses is desirable but insufficient . Thereis not less vice among those who knowthan there i s among those who do notknow ethics, other things being equal, excepting where education is conceived tobe something more than the imparting ofinformation .

Sometimes nations and individuals covetcharacter without being ready to pay thewhole price for it . They give admirablefacilities for the development Of certainphases of training essential to character,but exclude that deciding factor which determines whether or not they may bewoven into character . Influences fromother sources may come in to repair wilful neglect, but, i f not, the training goesfor nothing so far as character is concerned . Public schools can never givecharacter its best opportunity without apractical recognition of religion . Purelysecular education, the imparting of learning including the science of ethics , withoutreligion in church and home to supplement

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it, is a doubtful blessing at best . The current . idea of secular education is not new.

During the French Revolution its leadersmapped out what appeared to be a satisfactory programme of instruction . It wasdesired to have moral training, first without religion or with the Worship ofReason,

” then with a minimum of religion . The priests were suffered to continueas being at any rate moral policemen, butDanton planned to supplant them by officiers demorale. All experiments wereof no avail . “

La morale populaire

cherche encore,

’ it was pathetically complained,

“an point d

’appni

solide.

” Then came freedom to worship,and later the Concordat reintroduced theold religious order, partially, i t is true, because the people could or would not livewithout it, but largely for the sake of

morals .I f religion without morality becomessuperstitious sentiment, morality withoutreligion becomes for the average man lnoperative ethics and ultimately a pitilessjudge . There is no more oppressive tyrant than a high ethical code with a will,untrained, uninspired, and helpless to re

spond. It becomes a mocking and cruel

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Nemesis viewing with indifference itswrithing victims . The Chinese Classicsare preserved by the wonderful nation whoproduced them, as a literary treasure instead of as a practical code of conductthe sure fate of the Bible apart from the

Christian Church .

It is too late in the day to pretend thatmorality and religion are synonymous,however intimate their relationship , or thatthe end of religion is to make men good .

Righteousness, which is the Christian termfor morality, is to be had

'

only in part bythe practice of embracing the excellent andbathing our mystic self in the fountain ofideals . The type of righteousness thuscreated can never be aught than self- conscious, like an overdressed woman, or agaudy painting . The Mystic Sense mustoccupy itself in still higher altitudes .Having come from God and being partakerof His nature , it must aspire to Him .

The end of li fe is religion, and the endOf religion is to know God The purest type of righteousness, experiencedor conceivable, is created by our having asour dominant ambition to know the onlyGod and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent .The net result is Christian Character .

IN RELATION TO RELIGION

THE operation of the Mystic Sense in relation to religion is commonly called faith.

Conversely, faith under another name isthat operation of the Mystic Sense whichpromotes health of body, which affords astarting point for all intellectual, scientific,and other productive pursuits, which leadscharacter from strength to Strength . Thesubj ective conditions under which, and thespheres in which, the Mystic Sense is employed, differ. But the faculty itself andits modas operandi are always the same .Just as the sense of bodily Sight whichviews the dirt beneath our feet is the samesense which contemplates the blue Sky, sothe inner sense of sight which perceivesan electron, an ideal, or a hypothes is is thesame sense which sees God. It is as possible to see God as to see a hypothesis, andas possible ( not more and probably less ) ,to see a hypothesis as to see God .

1

1 A hypothesis receives passively our quest: Godmoves to meet us.

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88 The Sixth Sense

is left behind not unlike the photograph ofthe flower retained on the retina of theeye and revived by act of memory andwill . But the visualizing has nothing to

to those of the body, saving on ly the sense of sight.Thus :Soul. I cannot of thy music rightly say

Whether I h ear, or touch, or taste the tones.How comes it then

That I am hearing stil l,and taste

,and

touch,Yet not a gl immer of that princely senseWhi

lch binds ideas in one, and makes themive '

Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thounow ;

Thou l ivest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths

,

Living and strong,which now encompass

thee.A disembodied soul

,thou hast by right

No converse with aught beside thyself ;B ut, lest so stern a sol itude shou ld loadAnd break thy being

,in mercy are vouch

safedSome lower measures of perception,Wh ich seem to thee

,as though through

channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or pa late, which

are gone.

How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not expl icate ;Meanwh i le, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though

,ti l l that B eatific ' ision, thou art

bl ind .

”

The idea underlying the Beatific ' ision is the comp lete apprehension of God by the complete man .

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do with physical sense perception, and thepart of the personality thus impressed isspiritual . To characterize tactual sensation of the body as real necessitates a likecharacterization of the tactual sensation ofthe spirit . If it be argued that in the

latter relationship there is no certainty asto what is phantasm and what reality, letit be remembered that the history of science is largely a series of corrections ofimperfect sense records . A highly developed power of Observation with ability for

Sight is chosen to denote this bliss because it is aprtncely co- ordinating sense, and our Lord spoke ofthe heritage of the ure in heart as being the visionof God, a heritage let it be noted, however, for nowand not merely for hereafter. It seems reasonable tosuppose that our powers of perception after death wi l lbe those mystic powers which we enj oy and use now,

though then they wil l be rapidly developed as beingour on ly perceptive powers .This suggests the investigation in progress of

psychic phenomena by scientific methods. The re

su lt may lead to an increase of our knowledge te

garding the nature of such phenomena . But I do notsee how

,if communication with the departed be pos

sible at a l l,we can expect to reach, and be reached

by,them except through the Mystic Sense. The ih

vocation of Saints seems to me more in l ine withwhat is probable than some of the experiments of theday. D isembodied spirits presumably approximatethe nature of God and can approach or be ap

proached on ly after a purely sp1ritual or mystica lfashion

,excepting in those rare psycho- physica l in

stances which are themselves contingent upon ahighly developed mystica l character and experience.

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accurate registration and correlation is thedistinguishing feature of culture . TheMystic Sense, like the bodily senses , is capahle of increasingly accurate perceptionby skilful and disciplined use . It takesits beginnings in gropings like the awkward j erks of a baby’s l imbs, and developsinto ordered and reliable movement byexercise and experiment, which includesmistakes and the profit accruing to the experience . Superstition bears the same relationto faith that a false scientific hypothesis bears to ascertained fact. The Mystic Sense in its infant working catches adistorted view of the ideal, as when Darwin propounded his conception of heredityby pangenesis, and leads us astray inscience ; in like manner in religion aglimpse, through a mist o f ignorance andmoral deficiency, of the Absolute, eventu

ates in superstition . Both are necessarystages in the training of the Mystic Sense .Similarly to the way in which the theoryof pangenesis stimulated discussion andresearch so as to aid theMystic Sense to amore accurate perception of the true hypothesis of the manner o f heredity, thesuperstitions of the nations conceived insincerity, crude and even repulsive though

The Sixth Sense 9 1

they be, have contributed to the completeknowledge of God and H is characterwhich forms our most valuable heritage .It is not hazardous to say that the ideals

and hypotheses which are still waiting forthe cognition of the Mystic Sense transcendgloriously those thus far apprehended .

This means that science is in its infancy.

It is equally true to assert that religion,so far from having fallen into decline, isbut gird ing itself to scale heights impatientto feel the tread of human feet . Thatwhich is good and true in itself must persist, whatever its crudeness and blemishes .The Mystic Sense in relation to religionis only at the beginning of its history .

Human, that is mystic, life began at so remote a period as to be beyond the reachof research . The operation of the MysticSense through many thousands Of years 1

prior to human records led the way to thatordered approach to God which we callreligion . The possibilities of its growthfor the race at large are indicated and em

phasized by individual instances taken fromthe common crowd . The world is just atthis moment engrossed in seeing that every

1 Progressive civil ization may be said to have begun B . c.

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one Should have an opportunity of developing fine physique and of acqu iring information. It is assumed that under properconditions a high average may be reached.

The same is to be postulated for the development of the Mystic Sense in relation tothe highest and best in religion . Under asufficient stimulus the average man will beable to apprehend what now is reachedonly by a minority . This, however, can

not come to pass until a whole world ofmen strain their inner eye and quickentheir inner car in the same direction, eachcontributing of his own strength to the rest,and all to each .

The history of Christianity and its immediate progenitor, Judaism, is the recordof the highest development of the MysticSense in religion . In the course of itsprogress the Absolute rises from a dimshadow to the greatest Reality. It is distinctively the religion of orderly and ra

tional mysticism . At first, men, feelingthe working of the Mystic Sense, used it ina childish way . What was Splendid inthem would be culpable in us . Abrahamcould consider it a call of God to slay hisson : a man of to- day could only think of itas a monstrous crime against God and so

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ciety, revolting even to contemplate . Itmarked a stage in the rationalizing of faithwhen at the last moment Abraham sawmystically that it was not God’s purposethat any human being should ever do atHis bidding an inhuman deed .

The most perfect individual li fe of faithever lived was that of Jesus Christ. HisMystic Sense never erred . He was neverso exclusively Divine as not to be com

pletely human . He was God living the

li fe of man . He walked by faith, not bysight. ' isions and ecstasies found rareand momentary place in His experience .He reached H is goal by the use of thosegifts and endowments which we have incommon with Him , and proclaimed forever to the race of men that it is the simple, steady, patient exercise of the MysticSense toward a God who is revealed asLove

,which exalts human li fe and puts it

in the way of winning incomparable powerand beauty . His reply to the query,Whatshall we do, that we might work the worksof God, is , This is the work of God, thatye believe— believe on Him whom Hehath sent . Further , He makes the astounding prophecy, Assuredly I announcethat he that believeth on me, the works

94. The Sixth Sense

that I do shall he do also ; and greaterworks than these shall he do . The

’

earlyChristians were distinguished from theirfellows as men who exhibited in high degree the faculty Of belief so as to be in aunique sense Believers,

” and their re

ligion was one in which faith played soprominent a part as to merit the name ofThe Faith . The whole Christian erahas been an era of faith or the exercise ofthe Mystic Sense . N0 great work can befound in it, in science, literature or religionwhich has not been made possible by thestimulus given to faith by the influence ofJesus . Miracles do not cease to be miracu louswhen they cease to be mysterious, andthe Christian centuries are strewn with suchmiracles many of them, works of healing and moral restoration, as great as thoseof Jesus . But the greater works than Hisstill he before us when we have sufficientlyshed materialism and committed ourselvesmore implicitly to the li fe of faith .

1

1 Two things must be remembered in connectionwith the interpretation of 'uo. xiv ff. In the firstp lace

,these chapters

,bursting as they are with

startling promises which the critic claims have notbeen made good

,were addressed to a select and

specia l ly trained group of followers. For instance,Whatsoever ye Sha l l ask in my name, that wi l l I do,constitutes a promise that cou ld not have been made

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96 The Sixth Sense

it was only to theMystic Sense of believersthat He manifested Himself, but also totheir bodily senses by way of the MysticSense . There is much that comes to thecognizance of the Mystic Sense throughphysical perception, and unless there is arefined and cultured nervous organismthere is no mystical connotation . A PeterBell could not find the mystical in nature .

A primrose by a river’s brimA yel low primrose was to him

,

And it was nothing more.

The same primrose to a Linnz us or anAsa Gray would reveal an unseen world .

Conversely, there are some things whichcannot affect our physical being except bythe way of mystical experience . Strikinginstances of this sort have been suitablytermed by von H iigel psycho-physical .They are possible only where there is extraordinary sympathy between the mysticaland physical

,the latter having been made

very completely the servant of the former .Only the mystic, or the specialist in theuse of the Mystic Sense, i s eligible for suchexperiences. The tremendously real fellowship with the Risen Lord of the disciples was of an ecstatic or psycho- physical

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order. It degrades the Resurrection manifestations to overemphasize their physicalreality as though this, rather than themystical, were the important feature .Their dominant note is spiritual . Thephysical perception came through the mystical . The experience of the disciplescould not be reproduced in after times withother men, for the necessary conditionswere wanting . Here and there amongspiritual giants there is a well authenticatedpsycho- physical experience, but it is ofphenomenal rather than of spiritual ormoral value . And yet it is within ourpower to see the Christ as really and ef

fectively as the Apostles did, though notwholly a fter the same manner .

St . Paul did not begin his li fe of faithwhen he had his psycho- physical experienceon

‘

the road to Damascus . He reachedthere a turning point in its history. Hewas converted, turning his mystic powersin a new direction . Those who were withhim were not sufficiently developed to seeall that he saw or hear all that he heard .

1

His vision of Jesus was momentary buthis li fe of faith was continuous . I f faithwas at its beginning when Abraham made

1 Acts ix, 7 ; xx11, 9 .

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his venture, it reached an illustrative andinviting climax when St . Paul made his .It was greater for St. Paul to espouse thecause of the Christ than to have a visionof Jesus. The phenomenal or extraordinary does not always culminate in suchcourage and devotion as his . It was because he was amystic that he had his vision,not because he had a vision that he becamea mystic . The Apostles who knew Jesusin the flesh had a lesser opportunity forfaith than St. Paul who saw Him but onceand then after psycho- physical fashion, andwho never apprehended Him with all hisbodily senses like those who saw withtheir eyes ” and “ beheld,

” and whose“ hands handled ” the Word of Life . Itwas fitting that St. Paul should give Christianity the impetus which made it a worldreligion . The highest development offaith has assigned to it the biggest undertaking . St. Peter with undeveloped intellectual gi fts and faith based on S ight couldnot do what St. Paul with highly developedreason and singular faith could do. TheRisen Jesus Himself declared that faithdependent upon physical or psycho- physicalexperience is of a lower order than that inwh ich the mystic sense is independent of

The Sixth ‘Sense 99

phenomenal action of the bodily senseBecause thou hast seen me, thou hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen,and yet have believed .

The great multitude of mortals wi ll always be outside of psycho-physical expe

riences. There is no religious loss in the

fact. Rather the contrary. That whichgives the soul its permanent hold uponmoral and spiritual realities and regard forthem in mystics is not their rare psychophysical experiences, but the same exerciseof the Mystic Sense in the daily round ofcommonplace religious duty which is opento every human being, with like wonderfulresults upon character . A phenomenalspiritual occurrence in the case of onewhowas not living a religious li fe would be a

mere wonder, perhaps even productive ofspiritual harm .

1 Such experiences are

never to be sought for . I f they cometheir peril is not less than their inspiration.

The trivial round, the common task,Wil l furnish a l l we need to ask,Room to deny ourselves, a roadTo bring us dai ly nearer G od.

1 The miracles of Moses before Pharaoh are il lustrative of that which abounds in history—wondershardening further an irrel igious l if e.

100 The Sixth Sense

It is a great barrier to religious effortamong the crowd, for those living the li feof faith , to give the impression that theirexperience is one of a series of ecstasies .It is no more so than is that of a studentof science or higher mathematics. It isthe li fe o f faith open to all men whichforms the religious li fe of the best menand the best religious li fe of allmenthe constant placing of God before theMystic Sense in a way not dissimilar fromthat in which the scientist approaches hishypothesis .

Think not the Faith by which the just shal l liveIs a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given ;It is an affi rmation and an act

That b ids eternal truth be present fact.”

Though theMystic Sense is not the solereligious faculty, it holds the primacy hereas in every distinctively human activity .

Used with reason its operation becomesreasonable or rational faith . Its oppositeis not reason but sight, that is to say, theunaided findings of the bodily senses ofwhich sight, being the most princely, isrepresentative . Hence St. Paul’s con

The Sixth Sense 1 0 1

trast— we walk by faith , not by sight .Even here it is hardly fair to say there isantagonism . Sight is the enemy of faithonly when it refuses to be an ally . Sightsees, faith in- sees and therefore foresees . Sight has boundaries which it cannot pass. Faith has horizons which re

treat as it advances .Faith has become increasingly rational

as the world has grown older and experi

ence has been added to experience . Itsexplorations in the world of ideals havebeen more frequent and daring with theadvance of time . Consequently the manof to- day makes his fl ights thitherwardswith a fulness of assurance on rationalgrounds or grounds of high probabilitywhich would have been impossible to an

Abraham . If the triumphs open to faithhavemutiplied, so have the deterrent forcesholding it back or set in battle array tothwart or otherwise impair it. The commonest injury wrought upon faith is thedeflecting of it from the worthy to theunworthy or less worthy . If a man’sMystic Sense, acute in other directions , isdormant or sluggish in religion, the reasonis usually to be found, I think, in circumstances analogous to those which make a

102 The Sixth Sense

student of belles lettres, for instance, indifferent to science, or a philosopher careless of the exploits of commerce, cases ofwhich are not wanting. The mind findshigher pleasure among certain persons inbeing exclusive and technical than in beingcatholic . So the Mystic Sense can fallshort of its highest employment simply because there is not in its possessor the willto employ it commensurately with its os

pacity. The explanation why some menare not actively religious must be soughtelsewhere than in the contention that theyare Short a faculty. The Mystic Sense,which by virtue of their humanity theypossess, is not employed by them reli

giously from whatever reason defectiveinterest, prejudice, antagonism, environment . Nevertheless the same inner senseis pushed to its fullest activity in otherdirections. The faculty which by a daringleap fixes on the evolutionary hypothesis,or with imaginative subtlety suggests theplot of a novel, is the selfsame one whichenables us to say,

‘f Our Father, which artin heaven . The consideration of viciousmen who are irreligious does not comewithin the purview of this discussion . Re

ligion and vice aremutually exclus ive,

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104. The Sixth Sense

Church is as Old as Christianity . One

Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith ,one Baptism, said St. Paul before Christianity was fifty years Old and the useof the Mystic Sense independently of organized Christian experience cannot hopeto reach valuable results . Reformers of

religion are eccentrics and detract fromtheir service so far as they ignore the teligious experience of the ages by assumingexclusive positions or li fting a doctrineout of its setting. Our Lord never brokewith the faith of His fathers. H is lastact was to partake of the Passover according to the law . It was the Jews whobroke with Him . He came not to destroybut to fulfill . The only setting for anyone part of the truth is all the rest of thetruth . The only relationship big enoughfor any one man is all the rest of mankind. When at last the disturbed andbroken Christian Church comes to rest inthe large scheme of unity planned by itsFounder, then the mystical li fe of manwill gain a power and splendor which nowis but a vision and a hope .

This concludes my endeavor to creditthe Mystic Sense with that dignity and

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position of importance which belongs toit by right . The attempt is crude and thebrilliant vision which I had at the beginning of my task has become dimmer underthe process of putting it into words .Whatever has been written stands as acontribution of thought and experiencewhich cannot be of much value until it hasbeen purified from the dross of individualism through the findings of religion andscience, and lost in the great volume oftruth to which I submit it with reverenceand loyalty .