mysterious in all this, is only what might be expected. But the very
fact that the Higher comes with such power when the soul expects,
assimilates, and appropriates it [p.141] is a proof of its existence
somewhere at the core of the universe. It cannot mean an illusion; it
brings changes of too fundamental a nature to be no more than that. Its
very value and the enormous difficulty of turning it from being an idea
into being a possession demand too much energy of the soul to allow of
its being dismissed without any more ado. It contains elements so
different in their nature from the ordinary life of the hour as to
render it impossible to be considered of no more than of subsidiary
importance. For it has to be borne in mind that the values and norms
farthest removed from the regions of sense and intellect appear only
when man follows the drift of his own higher being; it is not when he
remains effortless and satisfied with the life of the hour that such
values and norms appear. They appear when the ordinary life is seen
through as no more than a stage for the further evolution of the soul
through the grasping of a higher kind of reality than has as yet
presented itself to it. As Eucken says: "Religion proves itself a
kingdom of opposites. When it steps out of such opposites, it destroys
without a doubt the turbidity and evanescence of ordinary commonplace
life, and separates clearly the lights and shadows from one another. It
sets our life between the sharpest contrasts, and engenders the most
powerful feelings and the most mighty movements; it shows the dark abyss
in our nature, but also [p.142] shows illumined peaks; it opens out
infinite tasks, and brings ever to an awakening a new life in its
movement against the ordinary self. It does not render our existence
lighter, but it makes it richer, more eventful, and greater; it enables
man to experience cosmic problems within his own soul in order to
struggle for a new world, and, indeed, in order to gain such a genuine
world as its own proper life."[50]