Ultimately every Revelation must be brought to the bar
of reason, and as a matter of fact, is so brought in practice, even the
most "orthodox" Br[=a]hma[n.]a in Hin[d.][=u]ism, disregarding all the
Sh[=a]s[t.]raic injunctions which he finds to be impracticable or even
inconvenient, while he uses those which suit him to condemn his
"unorthodox" neighbours.
No Revelation is accepted as fully binding in any ancient religion, but
by common consent the inconvenient parts are quietly dropped, and the
evil parts repudiated. Revelation as a basis for morality is impossible.
But all sacred books contain much that is pure, lofty, inspiring,
belonging to the highest morality, the true utterances of the Sages and
Saints of mankind. These precepts will be regarded with reverence by the
wise, and should be used as authoritative teaching for the young and the
uninstructed as moral textbooks, like--textbooks in other sciences--and
as containing moral truths, some of which can be verified by all morally
advanced persons, and others verifiable only by those who reach the
level of the original teachers.
* * * * *
II
INTUITION
When scholarship, reason and conscience have made impossible the
acceptance of Revelation as the bedrock of morality, the
student--especially in the West--is apt next to test "Intuition" as a
probable basis for ethics.
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