Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/155

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RELIGION AND MORALITY 130

the investigation of those conditions under which man escapes from the sufferings that oppress liim. Hebrew science (the Talmud) was always merely the study and explanation of the conditions wliicli man had to observe in order to fulfil his contract with God, and to keep the chosen people at the height of their vocation. Church- Christian science has been, and is, an investigation of the conditions under which salvation can be obtained by man. True Christian science, such as is only now being born, is an investigation of the conditions enabling man to know the demands of the Supreme Will from w^hence he came, and how to applv those demands to life.

Neither philosophy nor science can establish man's re- lation to the universe, for that relation must be estab lished before any philosophy or science can begin. 'Iliey cannot do it for this further reason — that science, includ- ing philosophy as part of it, investigates phenomena intellectually — independently of the investigator's position or the feelings he experiences. But man's relation to the world is defined not by intellect alone, but also by feeling, and by the whole combination of his spiritual forces. However much you may assure a man, and explain to him, that all that truly exists is only idea — or that everji^hing- consists of atoms — or that the essence of life is substance, or will — or that heat, light, movement and electricity are different manifestations of one and the same energy — to a being that feels, suffers, rejoices, fears and hopes, it will all fail to explain his place in the universe.

That place, and consequently his relation to the universe, is shown to him by religion, which says to him : '^The world exists for you, therefore take from life all you can get from it,' or : ^ You are a member of a chosen nation loved by God, therefore serve that nation, do all that God has demanded, and you to- gether with your nation will receive the greatest wel- fare obtainable,* or : ^You are an instrument of the Supreme AYill, which has sent you into the world to perform an appointed task ; learn that AVill and fulfil