not only the accompaniment, but the very condition of the tendency we have just noticed. It is the exercise of the curbing or regulative impulse, which keeps the egoistic instincts within their proper range and in harmonious relationships with each other. The fact that the egoistic impulses in childhood, when over emphasised, are described as faults, shows that they are that away from which growth tends. In most instances the way in which and the time at which these were set aside is given by the respondents. The prevalence of the 'sense of sin' during adolescence, occurring as it does in the majority of the cases, whether there has been actual waywardness or not, is doubtless a complex of the same impulse. All the little imperfections are asserting themselves, and are felt as an organic tendency. Along with the dawning of rational and spiritual insight one gains the power to look back on these, and to feel a higher life, which can only be attained by the overcoming and crushing out of the complex of tendencies that make up the imperfect self. So that, in a very true sense, the whole adolescent stress may be viewed as a clash between the higher and lower selves in which the crisis is brought about through the activity. of this curbing and regulative impulse. We have found that this continues throughout adult life, and expresses itself in many virtues, such as ` patience, honesty, purity, self-control, and the like, each of which becomes transparent, and shows beneath it some impulse trying to assert itself. During maturity this motive becomes complex and refined, and is shown in the abstract ideal of self-abnegation. Mr Marshall, in his analysis of religion from the biological standpoint, arrives at a similar conclusion in regard to this element of religion. He says: The function of religion which lies back of its ceremonial is the suppression of the force of individualistic, elemental impulses in favour of those which have higher significance.' Again he says: 'It will appear 1 Henry Rutgers Marshall, Instinct and Reason, New York and London, 1898, p. 297. 1 upon examination that the various groups of religious expression which we shall examine tend to produce the suppression of individualistic reaction, and lead us to listen for the guiding voices within us.' That direction of religious development first noticed above, which concerns the transition from the egoistic point of view to that which regards the life outside as the centre of activity, is in reality simply a transition. from youth to adult life; it represents the second great step in the line of growth from childhood towards maturity. In order to complete the picture, it should be borne in mind that the central fact which marked the transition from childhood was the birth of religious self-consciousness, a necessary step in the acquisition of the ability to refer spiritual experiences to the ego, and to appreciate religion from within. Back of this was the life of childhood, in which the world was looked upon purely as an external fact; there was not yet the ability to appreciate the self as even a factor in its own experiences. This has become one of the most commonly recognised facts in regard to childhood experience. Miss Miles, for example, in her study of reminiscent experiences, says: 'The predominant direction of the mind of the child is shown by the fact that 70 show attention to the outside world, and only 27 to self. Even when the child thinks of himself, he is more apt to regard himself as a victim of sensation than as an agent in bringing things to pass.'1 In our study of the religion of childhood, it was evident that the child's religious experiences were viewed as objective. God was a being external to itself and above it, dwelling in the sky. The most pronounced feature of its religion was that which involved its relationship to this Being, expressed usually in the most concrete and objective terms. The most marked characteristic of adolescence, on the contrary, was the breaking away from religion as something external. New life wells up within the consciousness of the youth, 1 Miss Caroline Miles, 'A Study in Individual Psychology,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VI., p. 554. and this either surges above the threshold of consciousness as a clearly appreciated spiritual product, or makes itself felt as opposing currents of life in the undefined sphere of feeling. Out of it all is born the clear consciousness of a self which is an organ for the expression of spiritual life. And now comes the third step, which we have already noticed, in which the person's consciousness of the world-order is aroused, and he appreciates the relationships existing between part and part-feels that his own personality is only a small fraction of the larger life. He transfers the centre of his activity to the life of the whole. His most prominent motive is to live in the lives of other persons, and to lose his life in love and service, in unison with God. There are, consequently, in this aspect of religious growth, three great steps in development:-First, that in which religion is viewed externally; secondly, that in which the centre of activity is one's own personality; and thirdly, that in which the centre of activity again becomes objective. The growing individual tends to obtain a knowledge of himself as a spiritual personality, and to gain control of himself as a unit in society, and then to give himself back again as an organic part of the world-life. |