If  any  one  phrase  could  gather  its  universal  message,
that  phrase  would  be,  ^  All  is  not  vanity  in  this  Universe,
whatever  the  appearances  may  suggest.'  If  it  can  stop
anything,  religion  as  commonly  apprehended  can  stop  just
such  chaffing  talk  as  Benan's.  It  favors  gravity,  not
pertness ;  it  says  ^  hush '  to  all  vain  chatter  and  smart  wit.
1  Feuilles  d^tach^  pp.  894r-398  (abridged).
38         THE  VARIETIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE

But  if  hostfle  to  light  irony,  religion  is  equally  hostile
to  heavy  grumbling  and  complaint.  The  world  appears
tragic  enough  in  some  religions,  but  the  tragedy  is  real-
ized as  purging,  and  a  way  of  deliverance  is  held  to  exist.
We  shall  see  enough  of  the  religious  melancholy  in  a
future  lecture;  but  melancholy,  according  to  our  ordi-
nary use  of  language,  forfeits  all  title  to  be  called  reli«
gious  when,  in  Marcus  Aurelius's  racy  words,  the  sufferer
simply  lies  kicking  and  screaming  after  the  fashion  of
a  sacrificed  pig.  The  mood  of  a  Schopenhauer  or  a
Nietzsche,  —  and  in  a  less  degree  one  may  sometimes  say
the  same  of  our  own  sad  Carlyle,  —  though  often  an
ennobling  sadness,  is  almost  as  often  only  peevishness
running  away  with  the  bit  betspeen  its  teeth.  The  sal-
Ues  of  the  two  German  authors  remind  one,  half  the
time,  of  the  sick  shriekings  of  two  dying  rats.  They
lack  the  purgatorial  note  which  religious  sadness  gives
forth.
