A genuine first-hand religious experience like this
is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses,
the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman.
If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others,
it becomes a definite and labeled heresy.
But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution,
it becomes itself an orthodoxy;
and when a religion has become an orthodoxy,
its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry;
the faithful live at second hand exclusively
and stone the prophets in their turn.
The new church, in spite of whatever human goodness it may foster,
can be henceforth counted on as a staunch ally
in every attempt to stifle the spontaneous religious spirit,
and to stop all later babblings of the fountain from which,
in purer days, it drew its own supply of inspiration.
WILLIAM JAMES, Varieties of Religious Experience