Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net 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._