ABSTRACT
The sense of unity with the living universe may be lost in an individual or an entire cultural epoch. It may be thought to be no authentic source for metaphysical knowledge of those aspects of the subsistent universe which can only be grasped in this way. It may be held that its cognitive significance and value have been superseded by science, or Christianity, or humanism; but the effect is to cut away the ultimate roots upon which all the 'higher' forms of sympathetic and emotional life depend for their subsistence. From the nature of the case it necessarily follows that a decline in the sense of cosmic unity must eventually be detrimental to love of humanity and to the sense of human brotherhood. Life and all its values may and should indeed be sacrificed none the less, firstly for the sake of a nobler life, and secondly for ends and values of a purely spiritual and religious kind.
