And here it may be appropriate to introduce a few reflections on the relations of moral practice to ethical theory in religious belief. To many it will appear that the logic of our position must lead us to underestimate the value of philosophical and religious doctrines in connection with morality, and that, having excluded this from our basis of fellowship, we shall inevitably drift into a crude empiricism. I may be permitted to say that precisely the opposite is at least our aim, and that among the objects we propose to ourselves, none are dearer than the advancement of ethical theory and the upbuilding of religious conviction. The Ethical Society is a society of persons who are bent on being taught clearer perceptions of right and wrong, and being shown how to improve conduct. At least, let us hasten to add, the ideal of the society is that of a body of men who shall have this bent. Is it vain to hope that there will in time arise those who will render them the service they require.... It is safe to say that every step forward in religion was due to a quickening of the moral impulses; that moral progress is the condition of religious progress; that the good life is the soil out of which the religious life grows. The truths of religion are chiefly two,--that there is a reality other than that of the senses, and that the ultimate reality in things is, in a sense transcending our comprehension, akin to the moral nature of men. But how shall we acquaint ourselves with this super-sensible? The ladder of science does not reach so far. And the utmost stretch of the speculative reason cannot attain to more than the abstract postulate of an infinite, which, however, is void of the essential attributes of divinity. Only the testimony of the moral life can support a vital conviction of this sort.... The Ethical Society is friendly to genuine religion anywhere and everywhere, because it vitalizes religious doctrines by pouring into them the contents of spiritual meaning.... A new moral earnestness must precede the rise of larger religious ideals; for the new religious synthesis which many long for, will not be a fabrication, but a growth. It will not steal upon us as a thief in the night, or burst upon us as lightning from the sky, but will come in time as a result of the gradual, moral evolution of modern society, as the expression of higher moral aspirations, and a response to deeper moral needs. In his famous essay on "Worship," Emerson says: