BOOK I.
OF RELIGION IN GENERAL; OR A DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
EXAMINATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN MAN, AND THE EXISTENCE OF ITS OBJECT.
As we look on the world which Man has added to that which came from the hand of its Maker, we are struck with the variety of its objects, and the contradiction between them. There are institutions to prevent crime; institutions that of necessity perpetuate crime. This is built on Selfishness; would stand by the downfall of Justice and Truth. Side by side therewith is another, whose broad foundation is universal Love,—love for all that are of woman born. Thus we see palaces and hovels, jails and asylums for the weak, arsenals and churches, huddled together in the strangest and most intricate confusion. How shall we bring order out of this chaos; account for the existence of these contradictions? It is serious work to decompose these phenomena, so various and conflicting; to detect the one cause in the many results. But in doing this, we find the root of all in Man himself. In him is the same perplexing antithesis which we meet in all his works. These conflicting things existed as ideas in him before they took their present and concrete shape. Discordant causes have produced effects not harmonious. Out of Man these institutions have grown; out of his passions, or his judgement; his senses, or his soul. Taken together they are
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