sufficient within its own domain, does not take away from
nature the characters which religion seeks and requires in it, namely,
purpose, dependence and mystery. Or it may be that nature itself does not
correspond at all to this ideal of mathematical explicability, that this
ideal may be well enough as a guide for investigation, but that it is not
a fundamental clue really applying to nature as a whole and in its
essence. It may be that nature as a whole cannot be scientifically summed
up without straining the mechanical categories. And this suggests another
possibility, namely, that the naturalistic method of interpretation cannot
be applied throughout the whole territory of nature, that it embraces
certain aspects but not others, and, finally, that it is distinctly
interrupted and held in abeyance at particular points by the
incommensurable which breaks forth spontaneously out of the depths of
phenomena, revealing a depth which is not to be explained away.

All these possibilities occur. And though they need not necessarily be
regarded as the key to our order of discussion, in what follows we shall
often meet them singly or together.

The Mystery of Existence Remains Unexplained.

1. Let us begin with the problem of the mystery of all existence, and see
whether it remains unaffected, or whether it disappears in face of
naturalistic interpretation, with its discovery and formulation of law and
order, with its methods of measuring and computing. More primary even than
faith and heartfelt trust in everlasting wisdom and purposeful Providence
there is piety; there is devout sense of awe before the marvellous and
mysterious, before the depth and the hidden nature of all things and all
being, before unspeakable mysteries over which we hover, and abysmal
depths over which we are borne. In a world which had not these, and could
not be first felt in this way, religion could not live at all. It could
not sail on its too shallow waters, or breathe its too thin air. It is
indeed a fact that what alone we can fitly speak of and love as
religion--the sense of mystery and the gentle shuddering of piety before
the depth of phenomena and their everlasting divine abysses,--has its true
place and kingdom in the world of mind and history, with its experiences,
riddles, and depths. But mystery is to be found in the world of nature as
well. It is only to a very superficial study that it could appear as
though nature were, or ever