"What
is the character and general structure of the universe in which we
live? Is there a permanent element in the constitution of this
universe? How are we related to it? What place do we occupy in it, and
what is the kind of conduct that befits the place we occupy? These
questions are common to religion, philosophy, and higher poetry. But
the kind of knowledge that poetic inspiration brings is essentially
individual in its character; it is figurative, vague, and indefinite.
Religion, in its more advanced forms, rises higher than poetry. It
moves from individual to society. In its attitude towards the Ultimate
Reality it is opposed to the limitations of man; it enlarges his claims
and holds out the prospect of nothing less than a direct vision of
Reality. Is it then possible to apply the purely rational method of
philosophy to religion? The spirit of philosophy is one of free
inquiry. It suspects all authority. Its function is to trace the
uncritical assumptions of human thought to their hiding places, and in
this pursuit it may finally end in denial or a frank admission of the
incapacity of pure reason to reach the Ultimate Reality. The essence of
religion, on the other hand, is faith; and faith, like the bird, sees
its ‘trackless way’ unattended by intellect which, in the words of the
great mystic poet of Islam, ‘only waylays the living heart of man and
robs it of the invisible wealth of life that lies within’."
