I believe rather that we
stand in much the same relation to the whole of the universe as our
canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit
our drawing-rooms and libraries. They take part in scenes of whose
significance they have no inkling. They are merely tangent to curves
of history the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly
beyond their ken. So we are tangents to the wider life of things.
But, just as many of the dog's and cat's ideals coincide with our
ideals, and the dogs and cats have daily living proof of the fact,
so we may well believe, on the proofs that religious experience
affords, that higher powers exist and are at work to save the world
on ideal lines similar to our own.
You see that pragmatism can be called religious, if you allow that
religion can be pluralistic or merely melioristic in type. But
whether you will finally put up with that type of religion or not is
a question that only you yourself can decide. Pragmatism has to
postpone dogmatic answer, for we do not yet know certainly which
type of religion is going to work best in the long run. The various
overbeliefs of men, their several faith-ventures, are in fact what
are needed to bring the evidence in.
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