allegorical meaning also is due to his being there--that is, the
world is all the richer for having a devil in it, SO LONG AS WE
KEEP OUR FOOT UPON HIS NECK. In the religious consciousness,
that is just the position in which the fiend, the negative or
tragic principle, is found; and for that very reason the
religious consciousness is so rich from the emotional point of
view.[20] We shall see how in certain men and women it takes on
a monstrously ascetic form. There are saints who have literally
fed on the negative principle, on humiliation and privation, and
the thought of suffering and death--their souls growing in
happiness just in proportion as their outward state grew more
intolerable. No other emotion than religious emotion can bring a
man to this peculiar pass. And it is for that reason that when
we ask our question about the value of religion for human life, I
think we ought to look for the answer among these violenter
examples rather than among those of a more moderate hue.

[20] I owe this allegorical illustration to my lamented colleague
and Friend, Charles Carroll Everett.



Having the phenomenon of our study in its acutest possible form
to start with, we can shade down as much as we please later. And
if in these cases, repulsive as they are to our ordinary worldly
way of judging, we find ourselves compelled to acknowledge
religion's value and treat it with respect, it will have proved
in some way its value for life at large. By subtracting and
toning down extravagances we may thereupon proceed to trace the
boundaries of its legitimate sway.