Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/218

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202 HENRY RUTGERS MARSHALL : response to impulses which are only of individual import,, and compelling delay until those of more far-reaching importance can present themselves ; of forcing upon us the habit of waiting for and subordinating ourselves to what is conceived of as the command from a power higher than any recognised in our immediate natural surroundings ; of enforcing the habit of listening to the " still small voice of conscience ". This, it seems to me, we may well claim to be the main function of religious expression, a function of sufficient importance to account for the persistence in the race of the habits related to religious service. Yet it must be noted that this claim does not preclude the existence of other functions of value to life, which may be pointed out by some writer more familiar than I am with biological lore. And especially must it be noted that this claim does not in any way indicate that in gaining a conception of the bio- logical functioning of religious expression, we have sounded the depths of the significance of religion itself to the souls of men existent in this Universe, which we so imperfectly comprehend. 13. And now, in closing this article, I must ask my reader to recur once more to the thought so often reiterated,, that the religious customs we have been considering are all tools, so to speak, which Nature has used to enforce re- straint ; and I wish to emphasise the fact that this restraint is of the very core and essence of religious functioning. Many a man declines to call himself religious because he cannot subscribe to the dogmatic statement of special religious bodies ; because he cannot bring himself to join with them in worship, or to follow their habits or customs. But if my analysis be correct he may be, for all that, a. thoroughly religious man ; provided only he finds within him an impulse persistently leading him to restrain his individualism and to give his social instincts full play ; provided he strives to follow the order of impulse emphasis- which Nature is endeavouring to impress upon him, in order to produce in him the subordination of the individualistic instincts, as modified with relation to reproduction, to those which have social significance ; provided, in other words, he lives a life subject to the call of duty. Many such men we know who are without the bounds of the Churches. This leads us to see that if we take a slightly different view we may state our conclusion in terms more strictly