THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE By William James
The publication of this famous book (Longmans, 5s.) at a low price and in compact form deserves every commenda- tion. The Gifford lectures of which they were composed were delivered in Edinburgh in 1901-1902, and they remain. masterpieces of description, analysis and literary expression. To read such a chapter as The ,Sick Soul is to enjoy at once the pleasures of a scien- tific treatise and of a great novel ; indeed it is difficult to decide whether these lectures should be rated highest as in- struction or as entertainment. Most of all, • perhaps, it is impossible to miss their profoundly sceptical tendency, despite their author's protests. Their method tends both to reduce all religious experiences to an equal value and by offering a naturalistic explanation makes any other superfluous, if not inadmis- sible. The inevitable sequel to the Varieties of Religious Experience is The End of an Illusion. And the lectures remain curiously topical. In an age to which the spirit of Nonconformity and sectarianism is unsympathetic and there- fore little understood, the illustrations James drew from them seem curiously. vivid, violent and significant ; it is interesting, above all, to see the same phenomena repeated in modern exam- ples of " conversion " to a political • creed, and in this may be found evidence of the permanent significance of the pro- cesses James examined. This is a book that can safely be recommended to everyone ; those who have not read it, should, and those who have cannot fail to increase their pleasure and their knowledge in reading it again.
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