with its physical existence than when it deals with problems on the
intellectual level. But such spiritual proofs are found in the fact that
these realities present themselves only at the height of spiritual
development, and in the fact that they produce an _inversion_ of the
nature of man, and change the centre of gravity of his life to a more
inward recess of his being [p.52] than is open on the natural or
intellectual side.

Thus, once more, the soul is driven forward by its own necessities to a
religious reality. What can it do but grant cosmic origin and validity
to such ideals? If these ideals are not this, then, as Eucken points
out, they are the most tragic illusions conceivable.

When they are acknowledged as cosmic realities, man is in the midst of a
religion of a _universal_ kind. But the acknowledgment of these as
cosmic realities is something more than a concept. The men who have come
to this conclusion required something more than logical arguments in
order to establish this truth. The conclusions were based upon a
_specific (characteristic)_ religious experience of their own. And such
a religious experience was larger and more real than anything that could
be established in the form of concepts concerning it. As we shall notice
in a later chapter, it is somewhat on this account that Eucken
differentiates between _universal_ and _specific (characteristic)_
religion.

It becomes evident that such contents of the new spiritual world cannot
be utilised by man without effort. These realities have to pass from the
region of ideas to the region of actual experiences. In other words,
they must become man's own religion. Man has now become convinced of the
reality of a universal spiritual life as constituting, in a measure, the