e outgrown such ways and means; other ways and means
higher in their nature may have become our inheritance. But these higher
ways and means could not have evolved out of their lower stages had not
some element of the _beyond_ instilled itself into them. The historical
religions could never have flourished on immorality and superstition,
however much of these we may discover in them. It is the _beyond,
over-personal_ element which has kept them alive, and this element has
always had a hard struggle to overcome and transform _the here-and-now_
elements. Whenever the historical religions are traced back to their
sources, there is discovered an element _above_ the world in the souls
of their founders and of their immediate followers. As Eucken puts it:
"To these founders the new kingdom was no vague outline and no feeble
hope, but all stood clear in front of them; the kingdom was so real to
their souls and filled them so exclusively that the whole sensuous world
was reduced by them to a semblance and a shadow if they could not
otherwise gain a new value from a superior power. The new world could
attain to such immediacy and impressiveness only because a regal
imagination wrestled for a unique picture in the tangled heap of life,
and because it invested this picture with the clearest outlines and the
most vivid colours. Thus the new world dawns on humanity with [p.171]
fascinating power, rousing it out of the sluggishness of daily routine,
binding it through a corporate aim, raising inspiring ardour through
radiant promises and terrible threats, and creating achievements
otherwise impossible. This prepared road into the kingdom of the
invisible, this creation of a new reality which is no merely serene kind
of play but a deep seriousness, this inversion of worlds which pushes
sensuous existence down into a distance and which prepares a home for
man within the kingdom of faith--all this is the greatest achievement
that has ever been undertaken and that has ever worked upon human soil.
... Their works seemed to carry within them Divine energies; wonders
surrounded their paths; their life and being bridged securely the gulf
between heaven and earth."[61] Now, Eucken shows that it is of great
importance to acknowledge these personalities in order that life may be
brought into a safe track. Enough has already been said of the
impossibility of finding a sufficiency for life and death within the
span of ordinary existence. And as thi