EARLY ATTITUDE TO RELIGION 271

that while " the manifestations, as occurring either in
ourselves or outside of us, do not persist: that which
persists is the Unknown Cause of these manifesta-
tions "—"an unconditioned Reality without beginning
or end."

Early attitude to Religion.—Spencer came of a religious
stock, but the traditional beliefs took no grip of him.
Even as a boy he had what may be called a cosmic
outlook, but he tells us of no religious tendrils, and
if there were any they found no support in the faith
of his fathers. Though surrounded in early life by
a religious atmosphere, he never seems to have moved
or even drawn breath in it. He passed by theological
beliefs as if he were immune; he developed into an
agnostic without passing through any crisis or per-
plexity ; he had not even what Prof. James has called
" the religion of healthy-mindedness."

The explanation of this may be looked for partly in
the self-sufficiency of his strong intellect, partly in
the limitations of the emotional side of his nature, and
partly in his fine heritage of natural goodness. When
the religious mood does not arise naturally as an
almost spontaneous expression of inherited'disposition-
arid" nurture-influences, it is usually reached by one
of three paths, or by more than one of these at once.
These paths to religion, which apply to the racial as well
as to the individual history, may be called the practical,
the emotional, and the intellectual approaches to faith.
When men reach the limits of their practical endeavours
and find themselves baffled, when they feel the
impotence of their utmost strength, when they are
filled with fear of the past, the present, and the future,
then they sometimes become religious. When menuctivity cannotOrganism.—Spencer has beenns could be arranged in the
formulae of the generalise! 5 his detailed knowledged conclusions: we find that each adopts his