is now removed from the centre to the periphery of life; it can
therefore only touch us from without, and is not able to overthrow what
is within; it will not so much weaken as strengthen the certainty,
because it calls life to a perpetual renewal and brings to fruition the
greatness of the conquest."[60]


* * * * *


CHAPTER X [p.166]

THE HISTORICAL RELIGIONS


We have noticed in the two preceding chapters how Eucken distinguished
the two stages of religion--the "Universal" and the "Characteristic"
--and how he showed the necessity of both stages. As man cannot escape
from the conclusions of his intellect, it becomes necessary for him to
come to an understanding with those conclusions; and although such
conclusions do not form a complete account of life in its deepest
aspects, still they are indispensable for him in order to know that he
is on the path towards a further development of his spiritual nature.
Hence the grounds of religion have to be emphasised by the conclusions
of the intellect. But though intellectual conclusions, as we have
already seen, warrant us in holding fast to the presence and reality of
a life of the spirit and to the possibility of an evolution of such a
life, all this does not mean that such an evolution is actually reached
through the affirmations of [p.167] the intellect. The road of spiritual
development is marked out, but we have to travel over that road