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                          THE HEARTS OF MEN

                           BY H. FIELDING

               AUTHOR OF "THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE," ETC.


    NEW YORK
    THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
    1901

    PRINTED BY KELLY'S DIRECTORIES LIMITED,
    LONDON AND KINGSTON.




DEDICATION.

To F. W. FOSTER.


As my first book, "The Soul of a People," would probably never have been
completed or published without your encouragement and assistance, so the
latter part of this book would not have been written without your
suggestion. This dedication is a slight acknowledgment of my
indebtedness to you, but I hope that you will accept it, not as any
equivalent for your unvarying kindness, but as a token that I have not
forgotten.




CONTENTS.



DEFINITIONS OF RELIGION 1

INTRODUCTION 4


PART I.

I. OF WHAT USE IS RELIGION? 13

II. EARLY BELIEFS 21

III. IDEAL AND PRACTICE 28

IV. SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY--I 37

V. SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY--II 45

VI. WHENCE FAITHS COME 55

VII. THE WISDOM OF BOOKS 64

VIII. GOD 72

IX. LAW 84

X. THE WAY OF LIFE 92

XI. HEAVEN 101


PART II.

XII. THEORIES AND FACTS 113

XIII. CREED AND INSTINCT 124

XIV. RELIGIOUS PEOPLE 136

XV. ENTHUSIASM 145

XVI. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS 155

XVII. MIND AND BODY 165

XVIII. PERSONALITY 173

XIX. GOD THE SACRIFICE 185

XX. GOD THE MOTHER 196

XXI. CONDUCT 202

XXII. MEN'S FAITH AND WOMEN'S FAITH 212

XXIII. PRAYER AND CONFESSION 221

XXIV. SUNDAY AND SABBATH 233

XXV. MIRACLE 242

XXVI. RELIGION AND ART 254

XXVII. WHAT IS EVIDENCE? 266

XXVIII. THE AFTER DEATH 277

XXIX. OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM 287

XXX. WAS IT REASON? 298

XXXI. WHAT RELIGION IS 308

XXXII. THE USE OF RELIGION 316




THE HEARTS OF MEN.




RELIGION.


"The difficulty of framing a correct definition of religion is very
great. Such a definition should apply to nothing but religion, and
should differentiate religion from anything else--as, for example,
from imaginative idealisation, art, morality, philosophy. It should
apply to everything which is naturally and commonly called religion: to
religion as a subjective spiritual state, and to all religions, high or
low, true or false, which have obtained objective historical
realisation."--_Anon._

"The principle of morality is the root of religion."--_Peochal._

"It is the perception of the infinite."--_Max Mueller._

"A religious creed is definable as a theory of original
causation."--_Herbert Spencer._

"Virtue, as founded on a reverence for God and expectation of future
rewards and punishment."--_Johnson._

"The worship of a Deity."--_Bailey._

"It has its origin in fear."--_Lucretius and others._

"A desire to secure life and its goods amidst the uncertainty and evils
of earth."--_Retsche._

"A feeling of absolute dependence, of pure and entire
passiveness."--_Schleiermacher._

"Religious feeling is either a distinct primary feeling or a peculiar
compound feeling."--_Neuman Smyth._

"A sanction for duty."--_Kant._

"A morality tinged by emotion."--_Matthew Arnold._

"By religion I mean that general habit of reverence towards the divine
nature whereby we are enabled to worship and serve God."--_Wilkins._

"A propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man, which are
supposed to control the course of nature and of human life."--_J. G.
Frazer._

"The modes of divine worship proper to different tribes."--_Anon._

"The performance of duty to God and man."

It is to be noted that all the above are of Europeans acquainted
practically with only Christianity.

       *       *       *       *       *

The following are some that have been given me by Orientals:

"The worship of Allah."--_Mahommedan._

"A knowledge of the laws of life that lead to happiness."--_Buddhist._

"Doing right."

"Other-worldliness."




INTRODUCTION.


Some time ago I wrote "The Soul of a People." It was an attempt to
understand a people, the Burmese; to understand a religion, that of
Buddha. It was not an attempt to find abstract truth, to discuss what
may be true or not in the tenets of that faith, to discover the secret
of all religions. It was only intended to show what Buddhism in Burma is
to the people who believe in it, and how it comes into their lives.

Yet it was impossible always to confine the view to one point. It is
natural--nay, it is inevitable--that when a man studies one faith,
comparison with other faiths should intrude themselves. The world, even
the East and West, is so bound together that you cannot treat of part
and quite ignore the rest. And so thoughts arose and questions came
forward that lay outside the scope of that book. I could not write of
them there fully. Whatever question arose I was content then to give
only the Buddhist answer, I had to leave on one side all the many
answers different faiths may have propounded. I could not discuss even
where truth was likely to be found. I was bound by my subject. But in
this book I have gone further. This is a book, not of one religion nor
of several religions, but of religion. Mainly, it is true, it treats of
Christianity and Buddhism, because these are the two great
representative faiths, but it is not confined to them. Man asks, and has
always asked, certain questions. Religions have given many answers. Are
these answers true? Which is true? Are any of them true? It is in a way
a continuation of "The Soul of a People," but wider. It is of "The
Hearts of Men."

       *       *       *       *       *

Before beginning this book I have a word to say on the meanings that I
attach to the word "Christianity" and a few other words, so that I may
be more clearly understood.

There was a man who wrote to me once explaining why he was a Christian,
and wondering how anyone could fail to be so.

"I look about me," he said, "at Christian nations, and I see that they
are the leaders of the world. Pagan nations are far behind them in
wealth, in happiness, in social order. I look at our Courts and I find
justice administered to all alike, pure and without prejudice. Our
crime decreases, our education increases, and our wealth increases even
faster; the artisan now is where the middle class was a hundred years
ago, the middle class now lives better than the rich did. Our science
advances from marvel to marvel. Our country is a network of railroads,
our ships cover the seas, our prosperity is unbounded, and in a greater
or less degree all Christian nations share it. But when we turn to Pagan
nations, what do we see? Anarchy and injustice, wars and rebellions,
ignorance and poverty. To me no greater proof of the truth of
Christianity can be than this difference. In fact, it is Christianity."

I am not concerned here to follow the writer into his arguments. He is
probably one of those who thinks that all our civilisation is due to a
peculiar form of Christianity. There are others who hold that all our
advance has been made in spite of Christianity. I am only concerned now
with the meaning of the word. The way I use the word is to denote the
cult of Christ. A Christian to me means a man who follows, or who
professes to follow, the example of Christ and to accept all His
teaching; to be a member of a Church that calls itself Christian. I use
it irrespective of sects to apply to Catholic and Greek Church, Quaker
and Skopek alike. I am aware that in Christianity, as in all religions,
there has been a strong tendency of the greater emotions to attract the
lesser, and of the professors of any religion to assume to themselves
all that is good and repudiate all that is evil in the national life. I
have no quarrel here with them on the subject. Nor do I wish to use the
word in any unnecessarily narrow sense. Are there not also St. Paul and
the Apostles, the Early Fathers? So be it. But surely the essence of
Christianity must be the teaching and example of Christ? I do not gather
that any subsequent teacher has had authority to abrogate or modify
either that teaching or example. As to addition, is it maintained
anywhere that the teaching and example are inadequate? I do not think
so. And therefore I have defined my meaning as above. Let us be sure of
our words, that we may know what we are talking about.

In the word "religion" I have more difficulty. It does not carry any
meaning on its face as Christianity does. It is an almost impossible
word to define, or to discover the meaning of. It is so difficult that
practically all the book is an attempt to discover what "religion" does
mean. I nearly called the book, "What is the Meaning of Religion?"

In the beginning I have given a few of the numerous meanings that have
been applied to the word. It will be seen how vague they are. And at
the end I have a definition of my own to give which differs from all.
But as I have frequently to use the word from the beginning of the book,
I will try to define how I use it.

By "religion," then, generally I mean a scheme of the world with some
theory of how man got into it and the influences, mostly supernatural,
which affect him here. It usually, though not always, includes some code
of morality for use here and some account of what happens after death.

This is, I think, more or less the accepted meaning.

And there are the words Spirit and Soul.

I note that in considering origins of religion the great first
difficulty has been how the savage evolved the idea of "God" or "Spirit"
as opposed to man. Various theories have been proposed, such as that it
evolved from reasoning on dreams. To me the question is whether such an
idea exists at all. It may be possible that men trained in abstract
thought without reference to fact, the successors of many generations of
men equally so trained, do consider themselves to have such a
conception. I have met men who declared they had a clear idea of the
fourth dimension in Mathematics and of unending space. There may be
people who can realise a Spirit which has other qualities than man. In
some creeds the idea is assumed as existing. But personally I