The Letters of William James Volume Ii Part 22

_I_ hate to reply to anybody, and will sympathize with your silence. But I had to restate my position more clearly. Yours truly,

Wm. James.

The following doc.u.ment is not a letter, but a series of answers to a questionnaire upon the subject of religious belief, which was sent out in 1904 by Professor James B. Pratt of Williams College, and to which James filled out a reply at an unascertained date in the autumn of that year.

QUESTIONNAIRE[55]

It is being realized as never before that religion, as one of the most important things in the life both of the community and of the individual, deserves close and extended study. Such study can be of value only if based upon the personal experiences of many individuals. If you are in sympathy with such study and are willing to a.s.sist in it, will you kindly write out the answers to the following questions and return them with this questionnaire, as soon as you conveniently can, to JAMES B. PRATT, 20 Shepard Street, Cambridge, Ma.s.s.

Please answer the questions at length and in detail. Do not give philosophical generalizations, but your own personal experience.

1. What does religion mean to you personally? Is it

(1) A belief that something exists? _Yes._

(2) An emotional experience? _Not powerfully so, yet a_ social _reality_.

(3) A general att.i.tude of the will toward G.o.d or toward righteousness! _It involves these._

(4) Or something else?

If it has several elements, which is for you the most important?

_The social appeal for corroboration, consolation, etc., when things are going wrong with my causes (my truth denied)_, etc.

2. What do you mean by G.o.d? _A combination of Ideality and (final) efficacity._

(1) Is He a person--if so, what do you mean by His being a person?

_He must be cognizant and responsive in some way._

(2) Or is He only a Force? _He must_ do.

(3) Or is G.o.d an att.i.tude of the Universe toward you? _Yes, but more conscious. "G.o.d" to me, is not the only spiritual reality to believe in. Religion means primarily a universe of spiritual relations surrounding the earthly practical ones, not merely relations of "value," but agencies and their activities. I suppose that the chief premise for my hospitality towards the religious testimony of others is my conviction that "normal" or "sane"

consciousness is so small a part of actual experience. What e'er be true, it is not true exclusively, as philistine scientific opinion a.s.sumes. The other kinds of consciousness bear witness to a much wider universe of experiences, from which our belief selects and emphasizes such parts as best satisfy our needs._

How do you apprehend his relation to mankind } and to you personally? } } _Uncertain._ If your position on any of these matters is uncertain, } please state the fact. }

3. Why do you believe in G.o.d? Is it

(1) From some argument? _Emphatically, no._

Or (2) Because you have experienced His presence? _No, but rather because I need it so that it "must" be true._

Or (3) From authority, such as that of the Bible or of some prophetic person? _Only the whole tradition of religious people, to which something in me makes admiring response._

Or (4) From any other reason? _Only for the social reasons._

If from several of these reasons, please indicate carefully the order of their importance.

4. Or do you not so much _believe_ in G.o.d as want to _use_ Him? _I can't use him very definitely, yet I believe._ Do you accept Him not so much as a real existent Being, but rather as an ideal to live by? _More as a more powerful ally of my own ideals._ If you should become thoroughly convinced that there was no G.o.d, would it make any great difference in your life--either in happiness, morality, or in other respects? _Hard to say. It would surely make some difference._

5. Is G.o.d very real to you, as real as an earthly friend, though different? _Dimly [real]; not [as an earthly friend]._

Do you feel that you have experienced His presence? If so, please describe what you mean by such an experience. _Never._

How vague or how distinct is it? How does it affect you mentally and physically?

If you have had no such experience, do you accept the testimony of others who claim to have felt G.o.d's presence directly? Please answer this question with special care and in as great detail as possible.

_Yes! The whole line of testimony on this point is so strong that I am unable to pooh-pooh it away. No doubt there is a germ in me of something similar that makes response._

6. Do you pray, and if so, why? That is, is it purely from habit, and social custom, or do you really believe that G.o.d hears your prayers? _I can't possibly pray--I feel foolish and artificial._

Is prayer with you one-sided or two-sided--_i.e._, do you sometimes feel that in prayer you receive something--such as strength or the divine spirit--from G.o.d? Is it a real communion?

7. What do you mean by "spirituality"? _Susceptibility to ideals, but with a certain freedom to indulge in imagination about them. A certain amount of "other worldly" fancy. Otherwise you have mere morality, or "taste."_

Describe a typical spiritual person. _Phillips Brooks._

8. Do you believe in personal immortality? _Never keenly; but more strongly as I grow older._ If so, why? _Because I am just getting fit to live._

9. Do you accept the Bible as _authority_ in religious matters? Are your religious faith and your religious life based on it? If so, how would your belief in G.o.d and your life toward Him and your fellow men be affected by loss of faith in the _authority_ of the Bible? _No. No. No.

It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authors.h.i.+p can survive the reading of it._

10. What do you mean by a "religious experience"? _Any moment of life that brings the reality of spiritual things more "home" to one._

_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._

CHOCORUA, _Sept. 21, 1904_.

DEAR PAULINE,--Alice went off this morning to Cambridge, to get the house ready for the advent of the rest of us a week hence--viz., Wednesday the 28th. Having breakfasted at 6:30 to bid her G.o.d speed, the weather was so lordly fine (after a heavy rain in the night) that I trudged across lots to our hill-top, which you never saw, and now lie there with my back against a stone, scribbling you these lines at half-past nine. The vacation has run down with an appalling rapidity, but all has gone well with us, and I have been extraordinarily well and happy, and mean to be a good boy all next winter, to say nothing of remoter futures. My brother Henry stayed a delightful fortnight, and seemed to enjoy nature here intensely--found so much _sentiment_ and feminine delicacy in it all. It is a pleasure to be with anyone who takes in things through the eyes. Most people don't. The two "savans"

who were here noticed _absolutely nothing_, though they had never been in America before.

Naturally I have wondered what things your eyes have been falling on.

Many views from hill-tops? Many magic dells and brooks? I hope so, and that it has all done you endless good. Such a green and gold and scarlet morn as this would raise the dead. I hope that your sister Susan has also got great good from the summer, and that the fair Josephine is glad to be at home again, and your mother reconciled to losing you. Perhaps even now you are preparing to go down. I have only written as a _Lebenszeichen_ and to tell you of our dates. I expect no reply, till you write a word to say when you are to come to Boston. Unhappily we can't ask you to Irving St, being mortgaged three deep to foreigners.

Ever yours,