The Hearts of Men

As my first book, The Soul of a People, would probably never have been completed or published without your encouragement and assistance, so the latter part of this book would not have been written without your suggestion. This dedication is a slight acknowledgment of my indebtedness to you, but I hope that you will accept it, not as any equivalent for your unvarying kindness, but as a token that I have not forgotten.

The difficulty of framing a correct definition of religion is very great. Such a definition should apply to nothing but religion, and should differentiate religion from anything else—as, for example, from imaginative idealisation, art, morality, philosophy. It should apply to everything which is naturally and commonly called religion: to religion as a subjective spiritual state, and to all religions, high or low, true or false, which have obtained objective historical realisation. — Anon.
The principle of morality is the root of religion. — Peochal.
It is the perception of the infinite. — Max Müller.
A religious creed is definable as a theory of original causation. — Herbert Spencer.
Virtue, as founded on a reverence for God and expectation of future rewards and punishment. — Johnson.
The worship of a Deity. — Bailey.
It has its origin in fear. — Lucretius and others.
A desire to secure life and its goods amidst the uncertainty and evils of earth. — Retsche.
A feeling of absolute dependence, of pure and entire passiveness. — Schleiermacher.
Religious feeling is either a distinct primary feeling or a peculiar compound feeling. — Neuman Smyth.