fountain-head of all causation. I am, of course, aware that the term
Religion has been of late years frequently used in senses which this
definition would not cover; but I conceive that this only shows how
frequently the term in question has been abused. To call any theory of
things a Religion which does not present any belief in any form of
Deity, is to apply the word to the very opposite of that which it has
hitherto been used to denote. To speak of the Religion of the
Unknowable, the Religion of Cosmism, the Religion of Humanity, and so
forth, where the personality of the First Cause is not recognized, is as
unmeaning as it would be to speak of the love of a triangle, or the
rationality of the equator. That is to say, if any meaning is to be
extracted from the terms at all, it is only to be so by using them in
some metaphorical sense. We may, for instance, say that there is such a
thing as a Religion of Humanity, because we may begin by deifying
Humanity in our own estimation, and then go on to worship our ideal. But
by thus giving Humanity the name of Deity we are not really creating a
new religion: we are merely using a metaphor, which may or may not be
successful as a matter of poetic diction, but which most assuredly
presents no shred of value as a matter of philosophical statement.
Indeed, in this relation it is worse than valueless: it is misleading.
Variations or reversals in the meanings of words are not of uncommon
occurrence in the ordinary growth of languages; but it is not often that
we find, as in this case, the whole meaning of a term intentionally and
gratuitously changed by the leaders of philosophical thought. Humanity,
for example, is an abstract idea of our own making: it is not an object
any more than the equator is an object. Therefore, if it were possible
to construct a religion by this curious device of metaphorically
ascribing to Humanity the attributes of Deity, it ought to be as
logically possible to construct, let us say, a theory of brotherly
regard towards the equator, by metaphorically ascribing to it the