,john ,fiske's ,writings4 ,,myths ,,and ,,myth-,,makers3 ,old ,tales and ,superstitions interpreted by ,comparative ,mythology4 #abmo1 #b4jj4 ,,outlines ,,of ,,cosmic ,,philosophy4 ,based on the ,doctrines of ,evolution1 with ,criticisms on the ,positive ,philosophy4 ,in two volumes1 #hvo1 #f4jj4 ,,the ,,unseen ,,world1 and other ,essays4 #abmo1 #b4jj4 ,,excursions ,,of ,,an ,,evolutionist4 #abmo1 #b4jj4 ,,darwinism1 and other ,essays4 #abmo1 #b4jj4 ,,the ,,destiny ,,of ,,man1 viewed in the ,light of ,his ,origin4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 ,,the ,,idea ,,of ,,god1 as affected by ,modern ,knowledge4 ,a ,sequel to ,the ,destiny of ,man4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 asterism ,for sale by all ,booksellers4 ,sent by mail1 post-paid1 on receipt of price1 by the ,publishers1 ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,co41 ,,boston4 ,,american ,,political ,,ideas1 viewed from the ,stand-point of ,universal ,history4 #abmo1 #a4jj4 ,,harper ,,brothers1 ,new ,york4 ,,the ,,idea ,,of ,,god ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,modern ,,knowledge ,illustration2 ,decorative symbol ,,by ,,john ,,fiske ,illustration2 ,decorative panel ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge #ahhf ,copyright1 #ahhe1 ,,by ,,john ,,fiske4 ,all rights reserved4 ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge3 ,electrotyped and ,printed by ,h4 ,o4 ,houghton ,co4 ,to ,,my ,,wife1 ,,in ,,remembrance ,,of ,,the ,,sweet ,,sunday ,,morning ,,under ,,the ,,apple-,,tree ,,on ,,the ,,hillside1 ,,when ,,we ,,two ,,sat ,,looking ,,down ,,into ,,fairy ,,woodland ,,paths1 ,,and ,,talked ,,of ,,the ,,things ,,since ,,written ,,in ,,this ,,little ,,book1 ,i now dedicate it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,arghyrion kai chrysion ouch hyparchei moi2 ho de ech1 touto soi didmi4 ,,preface ,when asked to give a second address before the ,concord ,school of ,philosophy1 ,i gladly accepted the invitation1 as affording a proper occasion for saying certain things which ,i had for some time wished to say about theism4 ,my address was designed to introduce the discussion of the question whether pantheism is the legitimate outcome of modern science4 ,it seemed to me that the object might best be attained by passing in review the various modifications which the idea of ,god has undergone in the past1 and pointing out the shape in which it is likely to survive the rapid growth of modern knowledge1 and especially the establishment of that great doctrine of evolution which is fast obliging us to revise our opinions upon all subjects whatsoever4 ,having thus in the text outlined the idea of ,god most likely to be conceived by minds trained in the doctrine of evolution1 ,i left it for further discussion to decide whether the term pantheism can properly be applied to such a conception4 ,while much enlightenment may be got from carefully describing the substance of a philosophic doctrine1 very little can be gained by merely affixing to it a label2 and ,i could not but feel that my argument would be simply encumbered by the introduction of any question of nomenclature involving such a vague and uninstructive epithet as pantheism4 ,such epithets are often regarded with favour and freely used1 as seeming to obviate the necessity for that kind of labour to which most people are most averse1--the labour of sustained and accurate thinking4 ,people are too apt to make such general terms do duty in place of a careful examination of facts1 and are thus sometimes led to strange conclusions4 ,when1 for example1 they have heard somebody called an agnostic1 they at once think they know all about him2 whereas they have very likely learned nothing that is of the slightest value in characterizing his opinions or his mental attitude4 ,a term that can be applied at once to a ,comte1 a ,mansel1 and a ,huxley is obviously of little use in the matter of definition4 ,but1 it may be asked1 in spite of their world-wide differences1 do not these three thinkers agree in holding that nothing can be known about the nature of ,god8 ,perhaps so1--one cannot answer even this plain question with an unqualified yes2 but1 granting that they fully agree in this assertion of ignorance1 nevertheless1 in their philosophic attitudes with regard to this ignorance1 in the use they severally make of the assertion1 in the way it determines their inferences about all manner of other things1 the differences are so vast that nothing but mental confusion can come from a terminology which would content itself by applying to all three the common epithet agnostic4 ,the case is similar with such a word as pantheism1 which has been familiarly applied to so many utterly diverse systems of thought that it is very hard to tell just what it means4 ,it has been equally applied to the doctrine of the ,hindu philosophers of the orthodox ,brahmanical schools1 who hold that all finite existence is an illusion1 and life mere vexation and mistake1 a blunder or sorry jest of the ,absolute2 and to the doctrine of the ,stoics1 who went to the other extreme1 and held that the universe was the product of perfect reason and in an absolute sense good4 7,pollock's ,spinoza1 p4 #cef47 ,in recent times it has been commonly used as a vituperative epithet1 and hurled indiscriminately at such unpopular opinions as do not seem to call for so heavy a missile as the more cruel term atheism4 ,the writer who sets forth in plain scientific language a physical theory of the universe is liable to be scowled at and called an atheist2 but1 when the very same ideas are presented in the form of oracular apophthegm or poetic rhapsody1 the author is more gently described as tinctured with pantheism4 ,but out of the chaos of vagueness in which this unhappy word has been immersed it is perhaps still possible to extract something like a definite meaning4 ,in the broadest sense there are three possible ways in which we may contemplate the universe4 ,first1 we may regard the world of phenomena as sufficient unto itself1 and deny that it needs to be referred to any underlying and all-comprehensive unity4 ,nothing has an ultimate origin or destiny2 there is no dramatic tendency in the succession of events1 nor any ultimate law to which everything must be referred2 there is no reasonableness in the universe save that with which human fancy unwarrantably endows it2 the events of the world have no orderly progression like the scenes of a well-constructed plot1 but in the manner of their coming and going they constitute simply what ,chauncey ,wright so aptly called cosmical weather2 they drift and eddy about in an utterly blind and irrational manner1 though now and then evolving1 as if by accident1 temporary combinations which have to us a rational appearance4 ,this is ,atheism1 pure and unqualified4 ,it recognizes no ,omnipresent ,energy4 ,secondly1 we may hold that the world of phenomena is utterly unintelligible unless referred to an underlying and all-comprehensive unity4 ,all things are manifestations of an ,omnipresent ,energy which cannot be in any imaginable sense personal or anthropomorphic2 out from this eternal source of phenomena all individualities proceed1 and into it they must all ultimately return and be absorbed2 the events of the world have an orderly progression1 but not toward any goal recognizable by us2 in the process of evolution there is nothing that from any point of view can be called teleological2 the beginning and end of things--that which is ,alpha and ,omega--is merely an inscrutable essence1 a formless void4 ,such a view as this may properly be called ,pantheism4 ,it recognizes an ,omnipresent ,energy1 but virtually identifies it with the totality of things4 ,thirdly1 we may hold that the world of phenomena is intelligible only when regarded as the multiform manifestation of an ,omnipresent ,energy that is in some way--albeit in a way quite above our finite comprehension--anthropomorphic or quasi-personal4 ,there is a true objective reasonableness in the universe2 its events have an orderly progression1 and1 so far as those events are brought sufficiently within our ken for us to generalize them exhaustively1 their progression is toward a goal that is recognizable by human intelligence2 the process of evolution is itself the working out of a mighty ,teleology of which our finite understandings can fathom but the scantiest rudiments 7,cosmic ,philosophy1 vol4 ii4 p4 #djf72 it is indeed but imperfectly that we can describe the dramatic tendency in the succession of events1 but we can see enough to assure us of the fundamental fact that there is such a tendency2 and this tendency is the objective aspect of that which1 when regarded on its subjective side1 we call ,purpose4 ,such a theory of things is ,theism4 ,it recognizes an ,omnipresent ,energy1 which is none other than the living ,god4 ,it is this theistic doctrine which ,i hold myself1 and which in the present essay ,i have sought to exhibit as the legitimate outcome of modern scientific thought4 ,i was glad to have such an excellent occasion for returning to the subject as the invitation from ,concord gave me1 because in a former attempt to expound the same doctrine ,i do not seem to have succeeded in making myself understood4 ,in my ,outlines of ,cosmic ,philosophy1 published in #ahgd1 ,i endeavoured to set forth a theory of theism identical with that which is set forth in the present essay4 ,but an acute and learned friend1 writing under the pseudonym of ,physicus1 in his ,candid ,examination of ,theism 7,london1 #ahgh71 thus criticizes my theory3 ,in it1 he says1 while ,i am able to discern the elements which ,i think may properly be regarded as common to ,theism and to ,atheism1 ,i am not able to discern any single element that is specifically distinctive of ,theism 7p4 #ade74 ,the reason for the inability of ,physicus to discern any such specifically distinctive element is that he misunderstands me as proposing to divest the theistic idea of every shred of anthropomorphism1 while still calling it a theistic idea4 ,this1 he thinks1 would be an utterly illegitimate proceeding1 and ,i quite agree with him4 ,in similar wise my friend ,mr4 ,frederick ,pollock1 in his admirable work on ,spinoza 7,london1 #ahhj71 observes that ,mr4 ,fiske's doctrine excludes the belief in a so-called ,personal ,god1 and the particular forms of religious emotion dependent on it 7p4 #cef74 ,if the first part of this sentence stood alone1 ,i might pause to inquire how much latitude of meaning may be conveyed in the expression so-called2 is it meant that ,i exclude the belief in a ,personal ,god as it was held by ,augustine and ,paley1 or as it was held by ,clement and ,schleiermacher1 or both8 ,but the second clause of the sentence seems to furnish the answer2 it seems to imply that ,i would practically do away with ,theism altogether4 ,such a serious misstatement of my position1 made in perfect good faith by two thinkers so conspicuous for ability and candour1 shows that1 in spite of all the elaborate care with which the case was stated in ,cosmic ,philosophy1 some further explanation is needed4 ,it is true that there are expressions in that work which1 taken singly and by themselves1 might seem to imply a total rejection of theism4 ,such expressions occur chiefly in the chapter entitled ,anthropomorphic ,theism1 where great pains are taken to show the inadequacy of the ,paley argument from design1 and to point out the insuperable difficulties in which we are entangled by the conception of a ,personal ,god as it is held by the great majority of modern theologians who have derived it from ,plato and ,augustine4 ,in the succeeding chapters1 however1 it is expressly argued that the total elimination of anthropomorphism from the idea of ,god is impossible4 ,there are some who1 recognizing that the ideas of ,personality and ,infinity are unthinkable in combination1 seek to escape the difficulty by speaking of ,god as the ,infinite ,power2 that is1 instead of a symbol derived from our notion of human consciousness1 they employ a symbol derived from our notion of force in general4 ,for many philosophic purposes the device is eminently useful2 but it should not be forgotten that1 while the form of our experience of ,personality does not allow us to conceive it as infinite1 it is equally true that the form of our experience of ,force does not allow us to conceive it as infinite1 since we know force only as antagonized by other force4 ,since1 moreover1 our notion of force is purely a generalization from our subjective sensations of effort overcoming resistance1 there is scarcely less anthropomorphism lurking in the phrase ,infinite ,power than in the phrase ,infinite ,person4 ,now in ,cosmic ,philosophy ,i argue that the presence of ,god is the one all-pervading fact of life1 from which there is no escape2 that while in the deepest sense the nature of ,deity is unknowable by finite ,man1 nevertheless the exigencies of our thinking oblige us to symbolize that nature in some form that has a real meaning for us2 and that we cannot symbolize that nature as in any wise physical1 but are bound to symbolize it as in some way psychical4 ,i do not here repeat the arguments1 but simply state the conclusions4 ,the final conclusion 7vol4 ii4 p4 #ddi7 is that we must not say that ,god is ,force1 since such a phrase inevitably calls up those pantheistic notions of blind necessity1 which it is my express desire to avoid2 but1 always bearing in mind the symbolic character of the words1 we may say that ,god is ,spirit4 ,how my belief in the personality of ,god could be more strongly expressed without entirely deserting the language of modern philosophy and taking refuge in pure mythology1 ,i am unable to see4 ,there are two points in the present essay which ,i hope will serve to define more completely the kind of theism which ,i have tried to present as compatible with the doctrine of evolution4 ,one is the historic contrast between anthropomorphic and cosmic theism regarded in their modes of genesis1 and especially as exemplified within the ,christian church in the very different methods and results of ,augustine on the one hand and ,athanasius on the other4 ,the view which ,i have ventured to designate as cosmic theism is no invention of mine2 in its most essential features it has been entertained by some of the profoundest thinkers of ,christendom in ancient and modern times1 from ,clement of ,alexandria to ,lessing and ,goethe and ,schleiermacher4 ,the other point is the teleological inference drawn from the argument of my first ,concord address on ,the ,destiny of ,man1 viewed in the ,light of his ,origin4 ,when that address was published1 a year ago1 ,i was surprised to find it quite commonly regarded as indicating some radical change of attitude on my part1--a conversion1 perhaps1 from one set of opinions to another4 ,inasmuch as the argument in the ,destiny of ,man was based in every one of its parts upon arguments already published in ,cosmic ,philosophy 7#ahgd71 and in the ,unseen ,world 7#ahgf71 ,i naturally could not understand why the later book should impress people so differently from the earlier ones4 ,it presently appeared1 however1 that none of my friends who had studied the earlier books had detected any such change of attitude2 it was only people who knew little or nothing about me1 or else the newspapers4 ,whence the inference seemed obvious that many readers of the ,destiny of ,man must have contrasted it1 not with my earlier books which they had not read1 but with some vague and distorted notion about my views which had grown up 7,heaven knows how or why67 through the medium of the press2 and thus there might have been produced the impression that those views had undergone a radical change4 ,it would be little to my credit1 however1 had my views of the doctrine of evolution and its implications undergone no development or enlargement since the publication of ,cosmic ,philosophy4 ,to carry such a subject about in one's mind for ten years1 without having any new thoughts about it1 would hardly be a proof of fitness for philosophizing4 ,i have for some time been aware of a shortcoming in the earlier work1 which it is the purpose of these two ,concord addresses in some measure to remedy4 ,that shortcoming was an imperfect appreciation of the goal toward which the process of evolution is tending1 and a consequent failure to state adequately how the doctrine of evolution must affect our estimate of ,man's place in ,nature4 ,nothing of fundamental importance in ,cosmic ,philosophy needed changing1 but a new chapter needed to be written1 in order to show how the doctrine of evolution1 by exhibiting the development of the highest spiritual human qualities as the goal toward which ,god's creative work has from the outset been tending1 replaces ,man in his old position of headship in the universe1 even as in the days of ,dante and ,aquinas4 ,that which the pre-,copernican astronomy naively thought to do by placing the home of ,man in the centre of the physical universe1 the ,darwinian biology profoundly accomplishes by exhibiting ,man as the terminal fact in that stupendous process of evolution whereby things have come to be what they are4 ,in the deepest sense it is as true as it ever was held to be1 that the world was made for ,man1 and that the bringing forth in him of those qualities which we call highest and holiest is the final cause of creation4 ,the arguments upon which this conclusion rests1 as they are set forth in the ,destiny of ,man and epitomized in the concluding section of the present essay1 may all be found in ,cosmic ,philosophy2 but ,i failed to sum them up there and indicate the conclusion1 almost within reach1 which ,i had not quite clearly seized4 ,when1 after long hovering in the background of consciousness1 it suddenly flashed upon me two years ago1 it came with such vividness as to seem like a revelation4 ,this conclusion as to the implications of the doctrine of evolution concerning ,man's place in ,nature supplies the element wanting in the theistic theory set forth in ,cosmic ,philosophy1--the teleological element4 ,it is profoundly true that a theory of things may seem theistic or atheistic in virtue of what it says of ,man1 no less than in virtue of what it says of ,god4 ,the craving for a final cause is so deeply rooted in human nature that no doctrine of theism which fails to satisfy it can seem other than lame and ineffective4 ,in writing ,cosmic ,philosophy ,i fully realized this when1 in the midst of the argument against ,paley's form of theism1 ,i said that the process of evolution is itself the working out of a mighty ,teleology of which our finite understandings can fathom but the scantiest rudiments4 ,nevertheless1 while the whole momentum of my thought carried me to the conviction that it must be so1 ,i was not yet able to indicate how it is so1 and ,i accordingly left the subject with this brief and inadequate hint4 ,could the point have been worked out then and there1 ,i think it would have left no doubt in the minds of ,physicus and ,mr4 ,pollock as to the true character of ,cosmic ,theism4 ,but hold1 cries the scientific inquirer1 what in the world are you doing8 ,are we again to resuscitate the phantom ,teleology1 which we had supposed at last safely buried between cross-roads and pinned down with a stake8 ,was not ,bacon right in characterizing final causes as vestal virgins1 so barren has their study proved8 ,and has not ,huxley1 with yet keener sarcasm1 designated them the hetair of philosophy1 so often have they led men astray8 ,very true4 ,i do not wish to take back a single word of all that ,i have said in my chapter on ,anthropomorphic ,theism in condemnation of the teleological method and the peculiar theistic doctrines upon which it rests4 ,as a means of investigation it is absolutely worthless4 ,nay1 it is worse than worthless2 it is treacherous1 it is debauching to the intellect4 ,but that is no reason why1 when a distinct dramatic tendency in the events of the universe appears as the result of purely scientific investigation1 we should refuse to recognize it4 ,it is the object of the ,destiny of ,man to prove that there is such a dramatic tendency2 and while such a tendency cannot be regarded as indicative of purpose in the limited anthropomorphic sense1 it is still1 as ,i said before1 the objective aspect of that which1 when regarded on its subjective side1 we call ,purpose4 ,there is a reasonableness in the universe such as to indicate that the ,infinite ,power of which it is the multiform manifestation is psychical1 though it is impossible to ascribe to ,him any of the limited psychical attributes which we know1 or to argue from the ways of ,man to the ways of ,god4 ,for1 as ,st4 ,paul reminds us1 who hath known the mind of the ,lord1 or who hath been his counsellor8 ,it is in this sense that ,i accept ,mr4 ,spencer's doctrine of the ,unknowable4 ,how far my interpretation agrees with his own ,i do not undertake to say4 ,on such an abstruse matter it is best that one should simply speak for one's self4 ,but in his recent essay on ,retrogressive ,religion he uses expressions which imply a doctrine of theism essentially similar to that here maintained4 ,the infinite and eternal ,energy from which all things proceed1 and which is the same power that in ourselves wells up under the form of consciousness1 is certainly the power which is here recognized as ,god4 ,the term ,unknowable ,i have carefully refrained from using2 it does not occur in the text of this essay4 ,it describes only one aspect of ,deity1 but it has been seized upon by shallow writers of every school1 treated as if fully synonymous with ,deity1 and made the theme of the most dismal twaddle that the world has been deluged with since the days of medival scholasticism4 ,the latest instance is the wretched positivist rubbish which ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison has mistaken for criticism1 and to which it is almost a pity that ,mr4 ,spencer should have felt called upon to waste his valuable time in replying4 ,that which ,mr4 ,spencer throughout all his works regards as the ,all-,being1 the ,power of which our lives1 alike physical and mental1 in common with all the activities1 organic and inorganic1 amid which we live1 are but the workings1--this omnipresent ,power it pleases ,mr4 ,harrison to call the ,all-,nothingness1 to describe it as a logical formula begotten in controversy1 dwelling apart from man and the world 7whatever all that may mean71 and to imagine its worshippers as thus addressing it in prayer1 ,o xn1 love us1 help us1 make us one with thee6 ,if ,mr4 ,harrison's aim were to understand1 rather than to misrepresent1 the religious attitude which goes with such a conception of ,deity as ,mr4 ,spencer's1 he could nowhere find it more happily expressed than in these wonderful lines of ,goethe3-- ,weltseele1 komm1 uns zu durchdringen6 ,dann mit dem ,weltgeist selbst zu ringen ,wird unsrer ,krfte ,hochberuf4 ,theilnehmend fhren gute ,geister1 ,gelinde leitend1 hchste ,meister1 ,zu dem der alles schafft und schuf4 ,mr4 ,harrison is enabled to perform his antics simply because he happens to have such a word as ,unknowable to play with4 ,yet the word which has been put to such unseemly uses is1 when properly understood1 of the highest value in theistic philosophy4 ,that ,deity per se is not only unknown but unknowable is a truth which ,mr4 ,spencer has illustrated with all the resources of that psychologic analysis of which he is incomparably the greatest master the world has ever seen2 but it is not a truth which originated with him1 or the demonstration of which is tantamount1 as ,mr4 ,harrison would have us believe1 to the destruction of all religion4 ,among all the ,christian theologians that have lived1 there are few higher names than ,athanasius1 who also regarded ,deity per se as unknowable1 being revealed to mankind only through incarnation in ,christ4 ,it is not as failing to recognize its value that ,i have refrained in this essay from using the term ,unknowable2 it is because so many false and stupid inferences have been drawn from ,mr4 ,spencer's use of the word that it seemed worth while to show how a doctrine essentially similar to his might be expounded without introducing it4 ,for further elucidation ,i will simply repeat in this connection what ,i wrote long ago3 ,it is enough to remind the reader that ,deity is unknowable just in so far as it is not manifested to consciousness through the phenomenal world1--knowable just in so far as it is thus manifested3 unknowable in so far as infinite and absolute1--knowable in the order of its phenomenal manifestations2 knowable1 in a symbolic way1 as the ,power which is disclosed in every throb of the mighty rhythmic life of the universe2 knowable as the eternal ,source of a ,moral ,law which is implicated with each action of our lives1 and in obedience to which lies our only guaranty of the happiness which is incorruptible1 and which neither inevitable misfortune nor unmerited obloquy can take away4 ,thus1 though we may not by searching find out ,god1 though we may not compass infinitude or attain to absolute knowledge1 we may at least know all that it concerns us to know1 as intelligent and responsible beings4 ,they who seek to know more than this1 to transcend the conditions under which alone is knowledge possible1 are1 in ,goethe's profound language1 as wise as little children who1 when they have looked into a mirror1 turn it around to see what is behind it4 7,cosmic ,philosophy1 vol4 ii4 p4 #dgj47 99 99 99 99 99 ,the present essay must be regarded as a sequel to the ,destiny of ,man1--so much so that the force of the argument in the concluding section can hardly be appreciated without reference to the other book4 ,the two books1 taken together1 contain the bare outlines of a theory of religion which ,i earnestly hope at some future time to state elaborately in a work on the true nature of ,christianity4 ,some such scheme had begun vaguely to dawn upon my mind when ,i was fourteen years old1 and thought in the language of the rigid ,calvinistic orthodoxy then prevalent in ,new ,england4 ,after many and extensive changes of opinion1 the idea assumed definite shape in the autumn of #ahfi1 when ,i conceived the plan of a book to be entitled ,jesus of ,nazareth and the ,founding of ,christianity1--a work intended to deal on the one hand with the natural genesis of the complex aggregate of beliefs and aspirations known as ,christianity1 and on the other hand with the metamorphoses which are being wrought in this aggregate by modern knowledge and modern theories of the universe4 ,such a book1 involving a treatment both historical and philosophical1 requires long and varied preparation2 and ,i have always regarded my other books1 published from time to time1 as simply wayside studies preliminary to the undertaking of this complicated and difficult task4 ,while thus habitually shaping my work with reference to this cherished idea1 ,i have written some things which are in a special sense related to it4 ,the rude outlines of a very small portion of the historical treatment are contained in the essays on ,the ,jesus of ,history1 and ,the ,christ of ,dogma1 published in the volume entitled ,the ,unseen ,world1 and ,other ,essays4 ,the outlines of the philosophical treatment are partially set forth in the ,destiny of ,man and in the present work4 ,it amused me to see that almost every review of the ,destiny of ,man took pains to state that it was my ,concord address rewritten and expanded4 ,such trifles help one to understand the helter-skelter way in which more important things get said and believed4 ,the ,destiny of ,man was printed exactly as it was delivered at ,concord1 without the addition1 or subtraction1 or alteration of a single word4 ,the case is the same with the present work4 ,,petersham1 ,september #f1 #ahhe4 ,,contents4 ,i4 ,difficulty of expressing the ,idea of ,god so that it can be readily understood #ce ,,ii4 ,the ,rapid ,growth of ,modern ,knowledge #df ,,iii4 ,sources of the ,theistic ,idea #fb ,,iv4 ,development of ,monotheism #gb ,v4 ,the ,idea of ,god as immanent in the ,world #ha ,,vi4 ,the ,idea of ,god as remote from the ,world #hg ,,vii4 ,conflict between the ,two ,ideas1 commonly misunderstood as a ,conflict between ,religion and ,science #ig ,,viii4 ,anthropomorphic ,conceptions of ,god #aaa ,,ix4 ,the ,argument from ,design #aah ,x4 ,simile of the ,watch replaced by ,simile of the ,flower #abh ,,xi4 ,the ,craving for a ,final ,cause #acd ,,xii4 ,symbolic ,conceptions #adj ,,xiii4 ,the ,eternal ,source of ,phenomena #add ,,xiv4 ,the ,power that makes for ,righteousness #aeh ,,the ,,idea ,,of ,,god4 ,i4 ,difficulty of expressing the ,idea of ,god so that it can be readily understood4 ,in ,goethe's great poem1 while ,faust is walking with ,margaret at eventide in the garden1 she asks him questions about his religion4 ,it is long since he has been shriven or attended mass2 does he1 then1 believe in ,god8--a question easy to answer with a simple yes1 were it not for the form in which it is put4 ,the great scholar and subtle thinker1 who has delved in the deepest mines of philosophy and come forth weary and heavy-laden with their boasted treasures1 has framed a very different conception of ,god from that entertained by the priest at the confessional or the altar1 and how is he to make this intelligible to the simple-minded girl that walks by his side8 ,who will make bold to declare that he can grasp an idea of such overwhelming vastness as the idea of ,god1 yet who that hath the feelings of a man can bring himself to cast away a belief that is indispensable to the rational and healthful workings of the mind8 ,so long as the tranquil dome of heaven is raised above our heads and the firm-set earth is spread forth beneath our feet1 while the everlasting stars course in their mighty orbits and the lover gazes with ineffable tenderness into the eyes of her that loves him1 so long1 says ,faust1 must our hearts go out toward ,him that upholds and comprises all4 ,name or describe as we may the ,sustainer of the world1 the eternal fact remains there1 far above our comprehension1 yet clearest and most real of all facts4 ,to name and describe it1 to bring it within the formulas of theory or creed1 is but to veil its glory as when the brightness of heaven is enshrouded in mist and smoke4 ,this has a pleasant sound to ,margaret's ears4 ,it reminds her of what the parson sometimes says1 though couched in very different phrases2 and yet she remains uneasy and unsatisfied4 ,her mind is benumbed by the presence of an idea confessedly too great to be grasped4 ,she feels the need of some concrete symbol that can be readily apprehended2 and she hopes that her lover has not been learning bad lessons from ,mephistopheles4 ,the difficulty which here besets ,margaret must doubtless have been felt by every one when confronted with the thoughts by which the highest human minds have endeavoured to disclose the hidden life of the universe and interpret its meaning4 ,it is a difficulty which baffles many1 and they who surmount it are few indeed4 ,most people content themselves through life with a set of concrete formulas concerning ,deity1 and vituperate as atheistic all conceptions which refuse to be compressed within the narrow limits of their creed4 ,for the great mass of men the idea of ,god is quite overlaid and obscured by innumerable symbolic rites and doctrines that have grown up in the course of the long historic development of religion4 ,all such rites and doctrines had a meaning once1 beautiful and inspiring or terrible and forbidding1 and many of them still retain it4 ,but whether meaningless or fraught with significance1 men have wildly clung to them as shipwrecked mariners cling to the drifting spars that alone give promise of rescue from threatening death4 ,such concrete symbols have in all ages been argued and fought for until they have come to seem the essentials of religion2 and new moons and sabbaths1 decrees of councils and articles of faith1 have usurped the place of the living ,god4 ,in every age the theory or discovery--however profoundly theistic in its real import--which has thrown discredit upon such symbols has been stigmatized as subversive of religion1 and its adherents have been reviled and persecuted4 ,it is1 of course1 inevitable that this should be so4 ,to the half-educated mind a theory of divine action couched in the form of a legend1 in which ,god is depicted as entertaining human purposes and swayed by human passions1 is not only intelligible1 but impressive4 ,it awakens emotion1 it speaks to the heart1 it threatens the sinner with wrath to come or heals the wounded spirit with sweet whispers of consolation4 ,however mythical the form in which it is presented1 however literally false the statements of which it is composed1 it seems profoundly real and substantial4 ,just in so far as it is crudely concrete1 just in so far as its terms can be vividly realized by the ordinary mind1 does such a theological theory seem weighty and true4 ,on the other hand1 a theory of divine action which1 discarding as far as possible the aid of concrete symbols1 attempts to include within its range the endlessly complex operations that are forever going on throughout the length and breadth of the knowable universe1--such a theory is to the ordinary mind unintelligible4 ,it awakens no emotion because it is not understood4 ,though it may be the nearest approximation to the truth of which the human intellect is at the present moment capable1 though the statements of which it is composed may be firmly based upon demonstrated facts in nature1 it will nevertheless seem eminently unreal and uninteresting4 ,the dullest peasant can understand you when you tell him that honey is sweet1 while a statement that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter may be expressed by the formula p #c4adaei will sound as gibberish in his ears2 yet the truth embodied in the latter statement is far more closely implicated with every act of the peasant's life1 if he only knew it1 than the truth expressed in the former4 ,so the merest child may know enough to marvel at the ,hebrew legend of the burning bush1 but only the ripest scholar can begin to understand the character of the mighty problems with which ,spinoza was grappling when he had so much to say about natura naturans and natura naturata4 ,for these reasons all attempts to study ,god as revealed in the workings of the visible universe1 and to characterize the divine activity in terms derived from such study1 have met with discouragement1 if not with obloquy4 ,as substituting a less easily comprehensible formula for one that is more easily comprehensible1 they seem to be frittering away the idea of ,god1 and reducing it to an empty abstraction4 ,there is a further reason for the dread with which such studies are commonly regarded4 ,the theories of divine action accepted as orthodox by the men of any age have been bequeathed to them by their forefathers of an earlier age4 ,they were originally framed with reference to assumed facts of nature which advancing knowledge is continually discrediting and throwing aside4 ,each forward step in physical science obliges us to contemplate the universe from a somewhat altered point of view1 so that the mutual relations of its parts keep changing as in an ever-shifting landscape4 ,the notions of the world and its ,maker with which we started by and by prove meagre and unsatisfying2 they no longer fit in with the general scheme of our knowledge4 ,hence the men who are wedded to the old notions are quick to sound the alarm4 ,they would fain deter us from taking the forward step which carries us to a new standpoint4 ,beware of science1 they cry1 lest with its dazzling discoveries and adventurous speculations it rob us of our soul's comfort and leave us in a godless world4 ,such in every age has been the cry of the more timid and halting spirits2 and their fears have found apparent confirmation in the behaviour of a very different class of thinkers4 ,as there are those who live in perpetual dread of the time when science shall banish ,god from the world1 so1 on the other hand1 there are those who look forward with longing to such a time1 and in their impatience are continually starting up and proclaiming that at last it has come4 ,there are those who have indeed learned a lesson from ,mephistopheles1 the spirit that forever denies4 ,these are they that say in their hearts1 ,there is no ,god1 and congratulate themselves that they are going to die like the beasts4 ,rushing into the holiest arcana of philosophy1 even where angels fear to tread1 they lay hold of each new discovery in science that modifies our view of the universe1 and herald it as a crowning victory for the materialists1--a victory which is ushering in the happy day when atheism is to be the creed of all men4 ,it is in view of such philosophizers that the astronomer1 the chemist1 or the anatomist1 whose aim is the dispassionate examination of evidence and the unbiased study of phenomena1 may fitly utter the prayer1 ,lord1 save me from my friends6 ,thus through age after age has it fared with men's discoveries in science1 and with their thoughts about ,god and the soul4 ,it was so in the days of ,galileo and ,newton1 and we have found it to be so in the days of ,darwin and ,spencer4 ,the theologian exclaims1 if planets are held in place by gravitation and tangential momentum1 and if the highest forms of life have been developed by natural selection and direct adaptation1 then the universe is swayed by blind forces1 and nothing is left for ,god to do3 how impious and terrible the thought6 ,even so1 echoes the favourite atheist1 the ,lamettrie or ,bchner of the day2 the universe1 it seems1 has always got on without a ,god1 and accordingly there is none3 how noble and cheering the thought6 ,and as thus age after age they wrangle1 with their eyes turned away from the light1 the world goes on to larger and larger knowledge in spite of them1 and does not lose its faith1 for all these darkeners of counsel may say4 ,as in the roaring loom of ,time the endless web of events is woven1 each strand shall make more and more clearly visible the living garment of ,god4 ,,ii4 ,the ,rapid ,growth of ,modern ,knowledge4 ,at no time since men have dwelt upon the earth have their notions about the universe undergone so great a change as in the century of which we are now approaching the end4 ,never before has knowledge increased so rapidly2 never before has philosophical speculation been so actively conducted1 or its results so widely diffused4 ,it is a characteristic of organic evolution that numerous progressive tendencies1 for a long time inconspicuous1 now and then unite to bring about a striking and apparently sudden change2 or a set of forces1 quietly accumulating in one direction1 at length unlock some new reservoir of force and abruptly inaugurate a new series of phenomena1 as when water rises in a tank until its overflow sets whirling a system of toothed wheels4 ,it may be that ,nature makes no leaps1 but in this way she now and then makes very long strides4 ,it is in this way that the course of organic development is marked here and there by memorable epochs1 which seem to open new chapters in the history of the universe4 ,there was such an epoch when the common ancestor of ascidian and amphioxus first showed rudimentary traces of a vertebral column4 ,there was such an epoch when the air-bladder of early amphibians began to do duty as a lung4 ,greatest of all1 since the epoch1 still hidden from our ken1 when organic life began upon the surface of the globe1 was the birth of that new era when1 through a wondrous change in the direction of the working of natural selection1 ,humanity appeared upon the scene4 ,in the career of the human race we can likewise point to periods in which it has become apparent that an immense stride was taken4 ,such a period marks the dawning of human history1 when after countless ages of desultory tribal warfare men succeeded in uniting into comparatively stable political societies1 and through the medium of written language began handing down to posterity the record of their thoughts and deeds4 ,since that morning twilight of history there has been no era so strongly marked1 no change so swift or so far-reaching in the conditions of human life1 as that which began with the great maritime discoveries of the fifteenth century and is approaching its culmination to-day4 ,in its earlier stages this modern era was signalized by sporadic achievements of the human intellect1 great in themselves and leading to such stupendous results as the boldest dared not dream of4 ,such achievements were the invention of printing1 the telescope and microscope1 the geometry of ,descartes1 the astronomy of ,newton1 the physics of ,huyghens1 the physiology of ,harvey4 ,man's senses were thus indefinitely enlarged as his means of registration were perfected2 he became capable of extending physical inferences from the earth to the heavens2 and he made his first acquaintance with that luminiferous ether which was by and by to reveal the intimate structure of matter in regions far beyond the power of the microscope to penetrate4 ,it is only within the present century that the vastness of the changes thus beginning to be wrought has become apparent4 ,the scientific achievements of the human intellect no longer occur sporadically3 they follow one upon another1 like the organized and systematic conquests of a resistless army4 ,each new discovery becomes at once a powerful implement in the hands of innumerable workers1 and each year wins over fresh regions of the universe from the unknown to the known4 ,our own generation has become so wonted to this unresting march of discovery that we already take it as quite a matter of course4 ,our minds become easily deadened to its real import1 and the examples we cite in illustration of it have an air of triteness4 ,we scarcely need to be reminded that all the advances made in locomotion1 from the days of ,nebuchadnezzar to those of ,andrew ,jackson1 were as nothing compared to the change that has been wrought within a few years by the introduction of railroads4 ,in these times1 when ,puck has fulfilled his boast and put a girdle about the earth in forty minutes1 we are not yet perhaps in danger of forgetting that a century has not elapsed since he who caught the lightning upon his kite was laid in the grave4 ,yet the lesson of these facts1 as well as of the grandmother's spinning-wheel that stands by the parlour fireside1 is well to bear in mind4 ,the change therein exemplified since ,penelope plied her distaff is far less than that which has occurred within the memory of living men4 ,the developments of machinery1 which have worked such wonders1 have greatly altered the political conditions of human society1 so that a huge republic like the ,united ,states is now as snug and compact and easily manageable as the tiny republic of ,switzerland in the eighteenth century4 ,the number of men that can live upon a given area of the earth's surface has been multiplied manifold1 and while the mass of human life has thus increased its value has been at the same time enhanced4 ,in these various applications of physical theory to the industrial arts1 countless minds1 of a class that formerly were not reached by scientific reasoning at all1 are now brought into daily contact with complex and subtle operations of matter1 and their habits of thought are thus notably modified4 ,meanwhile1 in the higher regions of chemistry and molecular physics the progress has been such that no description can do it justice4 ,when we reflect that a fourth generation has barely had time to appear on the scene since ,priestley discovered that there was such a thing as oxygen1 we stand awestruck before the stupendous pile of chemical science which has been reared in this brief interval4 ,our knowledge thus gained of the molecular and atomic structure of matter has been alone sufficient to remodel our conceptions of the universe from beginning to end4 ,the case of molecular physics is equally striking4 ,the theory of the conservation of energy1 and the discovery that light1 heat1 electricity1 and magnetism are differently conditioned modes of undulatory motion transformable each into the other1 are not yet fifty years old4 ,in physical astronomy we remained until #ahci confined within the limits of the solar system1 and even here the ,newtonian theory had not yet won its crowning triumph in the discovery of the planet ,neptune4 ,to-day we not only measure the distances and movements of many stars1 but by means of spectrum analysis are able to tell what they are made of4 ,it is more than a century since the nebular hypothesis1 by which we explain the development of stellar systems1 was first propounded by ,immanuel ,kant1 but it is only within thirty years that it has been generally adopted by astronomers2 and among the outward illustrations of its essential soundness none is more remarkable than its surviving such an enlargement of our knowledge4 ,coming to the geologic study of the changes that have taken place on the earth's surface1 it was in #ahcj that ,sir ,charles ,lyell published the book which first placed this study upon a scientific basis4 ,cuvier's classification of past and present forms of animal life1 which laid the foundations alike of comparative anatomy and of palontology1 came but little earlier4 ,the cell-doctrine of ,schleiden and ,schwann1 prior to which modern biology can hardly be said to have existed1 dates from #ahci2 and it was only ten years before that the scientific treatment of embryology began with ,von ,baer4 ,at the present moment1 twenty-six years have not elapsed since the epoch-making work of ,darwin first announced to the world the discovery of natural selection4 ,in the cycle of studies which are immediately concerned with the career of mankind1 the rate of progress has been no less marvellous4 ,the scientific study of human speech may be said to date from the flash of insight which led ,friedrich ,schlegel in #ahjh to detect the kinship between the ,aryan languages4 ,from this beginning to the researches of ,fick and ,ascoli in our own time1 the quantity of achievement rivals anything the physical sciences can show4 ,the study of comparative mythology1 which has thrown such light upon the primitive thoughts of mankind1 is still younger1--is still1 indeed1 in its infancy4 ,the application of the comparative method to the investigation of laws and customs1 of political and ecclesiastical and industrial systems1 has been carried on scarcely thirty years2 yet the results already obtained are obliging us to rewrite the history of mankind in all its stages4 ,the great achievements of archologists--the decipherment of ,egyptian hieroglyphs and of cuneiform inscriptions in ,assyria and ,persia1 the unearthing of ancient cities1 the discovery and classification of primeval implements and works of art in all quarters of the globe--belong almost entirely to the nineteenth century4 ,these discoveries1 which have well-nigh doubled for us the length of the historic period1 have united with the quite modern revelations of geology concerning the ancient glaciation of the temperate zones1 to give us an approximate idea of the age of the human race#a and the circumstances attending its diffusion over the earth4 ,it has thus at length become possible to obtain something like the outlines of a comprehensive view of the history of the creation1 from the earliest stages of condensation of our solar nebula down to the very time in which we live1 and to infer from the characteristics of this past evolution some of the most general tendencies of the future4 ,all this accumulation of physical and historical knowledge has not failed to react upon our study of the human mind itself4 ,in books of logic the score of centuries between ,aristotle and ,whately saw less advance than the few years between ,whately and ,mill4 ,in psychology the work of ,fechner and ,wundt and ,spencer belongs to the age in which we are now living4 ,when to all this variety of achievement we add what has been done in the critical study of literature and art1 of classical and ,biblical philology1 and of metaphysics and theology1 illustrating from fresh points of view the history of the human mind1 the sum total becomes almost too vast to be comprehended4 ,this century1 which some have called an age of iron1 has been also an age of ideas1 an era of seeking and finding the like of which was never known before4 ,it is an epoch the grandeur of which dwarfs all others that can be named since the beginning of the historic period1 if not since ,man first became distinctively human4 ,in their mental habits1 in their methods of inquiry1 and in the data at their command1 the men of the present day who have fully kept pace with the scientific movement are separated from the men whose education ended in #ahcj by an immeasurably wider gulf than has ever before divided one progressive generation of men from their predecessors4#b ,the intellectual development of the human race has been suddenly1 almost abruptly1 raised to a higher plane than that upon which it had proceeded from the days of the primitive troglodyte to the days of our great-grandfathers4 ,it is characteristic of this higher plane of development that the progress which until lately was so slow must henceforth be rapid4 ,men's minds are becoming more flexible1 the resistance to innovation is weakening1 and our intellectual demands are multiplying while the means of satisfying them are increasing4 ,vast as are the achievements we have just passed in review1 the gaps in our knowledge are immense1 and every problem that is solved but opens a dozen new problems that await solution4 ,under such circumstances there is no likelihood that the last word will soon be said on any subject4 ,in the eyes of the twenty-first century the science of the nineteenth will doubtless seem very fragmentary and crude4 ,but the men of that day1 and of all future time1 will no doubt point back to the age just passing away as the opening of a new dispensation1 the dawning of an era in which the intellectual development of mankind was raised to a higher plane than that upon which it had hitherto proceeded4 ,as the inevitable result of the thronging discoveries just enumerated1 we find ourselves in the midst of a mighty revolution in human thought4 ,time-honoured creeds are losing their hold upon men2 ancient symbols are shorn of their value2 everything is called in question4 ,the controversies of the day are not like those of former times4 ,it is no longer a question of hermeneutics1 no longer a struggle between abstruse dogmas of rival churches4 ,religion itself is called upon to show why it should any longer claim our allegiance4 ,there are those who deny the existence of ,god4 ,there are those who would explain away the human soul as a mere group of fleeting phenomena attendant upon the collocation of sundry particles of matter4 ,and there are many others who1 without committing themselves to these positions of the atheist and the materialist1 have nevertheless come to regard religion as practically ruled out from human affairs4 ,no religious creed that man has ever devised can be made to harmonize in all its features with modern knowledge4 ,all such creeds were constructed with reference to theories of the universe which are now utterly and hopelessly discredited4 ,how1 then1 it is asked1 amid the general wreck of old beliefs1 can we hope that the religious attitude in which from time immemorial we have been wont to contemplate the universe can any longer be maintained8 ,is not the belief in ,god perhaps a dream of the childhood of our race1 like the belief in elves and bogarts which once was no less universal8 and is not modern science fast destroying the one as it has already destroyed the other8 ,such are the questions which we daily hear asked1 sometimes with flippant eagerness1 but oftener with anxious dread4 ,in view of them it is well worth while to examine the idea of ,god1 as it has been entertained by mankind from the earliest ages1 and as it is affected by the knowledge of the universe which we have acquired in recent times4 ,if we find in that idea1 as conceived by untaught thinkers in the twilight of antiquity1 an element that still survives the widest and deepest generalizations of modern times1 we have the strongest possible reason for believing that the idea is permanent and answers to an ,eternal ,reality4 ,it was to be expected that conceptions of ,deity handed down from primitive men should undergo serious modification4 ,if it can be shown that the essential element in these conceptions must survive the enormous additions to our knowledge which have distinguished the present age above all others since man became man1 then we may believe that it will endure so long as man endures2 for it is not likely that it can ever be called upon to pass a severer ordeal4 ,all this will presently appear in a still stronger light1 when we have set forth the common characteristic of the modifications which the idea of ,god has already undergone1 and the nature of the opposition between the old and the new knowledge with which we are now confronted4 ,upon this discussion we have now to enter1 and we shall find it leading us to the conclusion that throughout all possible advances in human knowledge1 so far as we can see1 the essential position of theism must remain unshaken4 ,,iii4 ,sources of the ,theistic ,idea4 ,our argument may fitly begin with an inquiry into the sources of the theistic idea and the shape which it has universally assumed among untutored men4 ,the most primitive element which it contains is doubtless the notion of dependence upon something outside of ourselves4 ,we are born into a world consisting of forces which sway our lives and over which we can exercise no control4 ,the individual man can indeed make his volition count for a very little in modifying the course of events1 but this end necessitates strict and unceasing obedience to powers that cannot be tampered with4 ,to the behaviour of these external powers our actions must be adapted under penalty of death4 ,and upon grounds no less firm than those on which we believe in any externality whatever1 we recognize that these forces antedated our birth and will endure after we have disappeared from the scene4 ,no one supposes that he makes the world for himself1 so that it is born and dies with him4 ,every one perforce contemplates the world as something existing independently of himself1 as something into which he has come1 and from which he is to go2 and for his coming and his going1 as well as for what he does while part of the world1 he is dependent upon something that is not himself4 ,between ancient and modern man1 as between the child and the adult1 there can be no essential difference in the recognition of this fundamental fact of life4 ,the primitive man could not1 indeed1 state the case in this generalized form1 any more than a young child could state it1 but the facts which the statement covers were as real to him as they are to us4,a ,the primitive man knew nothing of a world1 in the modern sense of the word4 ,the conception of that vast consensus of forces which we call the world or universe is a somewhat late result of culture2 it was reached only through ages of experience and reflection4 ,such an idea lay beyond the horizon of the primitive man4 ,but while he knew not the world1 he knew bits and pieces of it2 or1 to vary the expression1 he had his little world1 chaotic and fragmentary enough1 but full of dread reality for him4 ,he knew what it was to deal from birth until death with powers far mightier than himself4 ,to explain these powers1 to make their actions in any wise intelligible1 he had but one available resource2 and this was so obvious that he could not fail to employ it4 ,the only source of action of which he knew anything1 since it was the only source which lay within himself1 was the human will2#c and in this respect1 after all1 the philosophy of the primeval savage was not so very far removed from that of the modern scientific thinker4 ,the primitive man could see that his own actions were prompted by desire and guided by intelligence1 and he supposed the same to be the case with the sun and the wind1 the frost and the lightning4 ,all the forces of outward nature1 so far as they came into visible contact with his life1 he personified as great beings which were to be contended with or placated4 ,this primeval philosophy1 once universal among men1 has lasted far into the historic period1 and it is only slowly and bit by bit that it has been outgrown by the most highly civilized races4 ,indeed the half-civilized majority of mankind have by no means as yet cast it aside1 and among savage tribes we may still see it persisting in all its original crudity4 ,in the mythologies of all peoples1 of the ,greeks and ,hindus and ,norsemen1 as well as of the ,north ,american ,indians and the dwellers in the ,south ,sea islands1 we find the sun personified as an archer or wanderer1 the clouds as gigantic birds1 the tempest as a devouring dragon2 and the tales of gods and heroes1 as well as of trolls and fairies1 are made up of scattered and distorted fragments of nature-myths1 of which the primitive meaning had long been forgotten when the ingenuity of modern scholarship laid it bare4#d ,a ,see note ,a at the end of the volume4 ,in all this personification of physical phenomena our prehistoric ancestors were greatly assisted by that theory of ghosts which was perhaps the earliest speculative effort of the human mind4 ,travellers have now and then reported the existence of races of men quite destitute of religion1 or of what the observer has learned to recognize as religion2 but no one has ever discovered a race of men devoid of a belief in ghosts4 ,the mass of crude inference which makes up the savage's philosophy of nature is largely based upon the hypothesis that every man has another self1 a double1 or wraith1 or ghost4 ,this hypothesis of the other self1 which serves to account for the savage's wanderings during sleep in strange lands and among strange people1 serves also to account for the presence in his dreams of parents1 comrades1 or enemies1 known to be dead and buried4 ,the other self of the dreamer meets and converses with the other selves of his dead brethren1 joins with them in the hunt1 or sits down with them to the wild cannibal banquet4 ,thus arises the belief in an ever-present world of ghosts1 a belief which the entire experience of uncivilized man goes to strengthen and expand4#e ,countless tales and superstitions of savage races show that the hypothesis of the other self is used to explain the phenomena of hysteria and epilepsy1 of shadows1 of echoes1 and even of the reflection of face and gestures in still water4 ,it is not only men1 moreover1 who are provided with other selves4 ,dumb beasts and plants1 stone hatchets and arrows1 articles of clothing and food1 all have their ghosts2#f and when the dead chief is buried1 his wives and servants1 his dogs and horses1 are slain to keep him company1 and weapons and trinkets are placed in his tomb to be used in the spirit-land4 ,burial-places of primitive men1 ages before the dawn of history1 bear testimony to the immense antiquity of this savage philosophy4 ,from this wholesale belief in ghosts to the interpretation of the wind or the lightning as a person animated by an indwelling soul and endowed with quasi-human passions and purposes1 the step is not a long one4 ,the latter notion grows almost inevitably out of the former1 so that all races of men without exception have entertained it4 ,that the mighty power which uproots trees and drives the storm-clouds across the sky should resemble a human soul is to the savage an unavoidable inference4 ,if the fire burns down his hut1 it is because the fire is a person with a soul1 and is angry with him1 and needs to be coaxed into a kindlier mood by means of prayer or sacrifice4 ,he has no alternative but to regard fire-soul as something akin to human-soul2 his philosophy makes no distinction between the human ghost and the elemental demon or deity4 ,it was in accordance with this primitive theory of things that the earliest form of religious worship was developed4 ,in all races of men1 so far as can be determined1 this was the worship of ancestors4#g ,the other self of the dead chieftain continued after death to watch over the interests of the tribe1 to defend it against the attacks of enemies1 to reward brave warriors1 and to punish traitors and cowards4 ,his favour must be propitiated with ceremonies like those in which a subject does homage to a living ruler4 ,if offended by neglect or irreverent treatment1 defeat in battle1 damage by flood or fire1 visitations of famine or pestilence1 were interpreted as marks of his anger4 ,thus the spirits animating the forces of nature were often identified with the ghosts of ancestors1 and mythology is filled with traces of the confusion4 ,in the ,vedic religion the pitris1 or fathers1 live in the sky along with ,yama1 the original pitri of mankind3 they are very busy with the weather2 they send down rain to refresh the thirsty earth1 or anon parch the fields till the crops perish of drought2 and they rush along in the roaring tempest1 like the weird host of the wild huntsman ,wodan4 ,to the ancient ,greek the blue sky ,uranos was the father of gods and men1 and throughout antiquity this mingling of ancestor-worship with nature-worship was general4 ,with the systematic development of ethnic religions1 in some instances ancestor-worship remained dominant1 as with the ,chinese1 the ,japanese1 and the ,romans2 in others1 a polytheism based upon nature-worship acquired supremacy1 as with the ,hindus and ,greeks1 and our own ,teutonic forefathers4 ,the great divinities of the ,hellenic pantheon are all personifications of physical phenomena4 ,at a comparatively late date the ,roman adopted these divinities and paid to them a fashionable and literary homage1 but his solemn and heartfelt rites were those with which he worshipped the lares and penates in the privacy of his home4 ,his hospitable treatment of the gods of a vanquished people was the symptom of a commingling of the various local religions of antiquity which insured their mutual destruction and prepared the way for their absorption into a far grander and truer system4#h ,,iv4 ,development of ,monotheism4 ,such an allusion to the ,romans1 in an exposition like the present one1 is not without its significance4 ,it was partly through political circumstances that a truly theistic idea was developed out of the chaotic and fragmentary ghost theories and nature-worship of the primeval world4 ,to the framing of the vastest of all possible conceptions1 the idea of ,god1 man came but slowly4 ,this nature-worship and ancestor-worship of early times was scarcely theism4 ,in their recognition of man's utter dependence upon something outside of himself which yet was not wholly unlike himself1 these primitive religions contained the essential germ out of which theism was to grow2 but it is a long way from the propitiation of ghosts and the adoration of the rising sun to the worship of the infinite and eternal ,god1 the maker of heaven and earth1 in whom we live1 and move1 and have our being4 ,before men could arrive at such a conception1 it was necessary for them to obtain some integral idea of the heaven and the earth2 it was necessary for them to frame1 however inadequately1 the conception of a physical universe4 ,such a conception had been reached by civilized peoples before the ,christian era1 and by the ,greeks a remarkable beginning had been made in the generalization and interpretation of physical phenomena4 ,the intellectual atmosphere of ,alexandria1 for two centuries before and three centuries after the time of ,christ1 was more modern than anything that followed down to the days of ,bacon and ,descartes2 and all the leaders of ,greek thought since ,anaxagoras had been virtually or avowedly monotheists4 ,as the phenomena of nature were generalized1 the deities or superhuman beings regarded as their sources were likewise generalized1 until the conception of nature as a whole gave rise to the conception of a single ,deity as the author and ruler of nature2 and in accordance with the order of its genesis1 this notion of ,deity was still the notion of a ,being possessed of psychical attributes1 and in some way like unto ,man4 ,but there was another cause1 besides scientific generalization1 which led men's minds toward monotheism4 ,the conception of tutelar deities1 which was the most prominent practical feature of ancestor-worship1 was directly affected by the political development of the peoples of antiquity4 ,as tribes were consolidated into nations1 the tutelar gods of the tribes became generalized1 or the god of some leading tribe came to supersede his fellows1 until the result was a single national deity1 at first regarded as the greatest among gods1 afterwards as the only ,god4 ,the most striking instance of this method of development is afforded by the ,hebrew conception of ,jehovah4 ,the most primitive form of ,hebrew religion discernible in the ,old ,testament is a fetichism1 or very crude polytheism1 in which ancestor-worship becomes more prominent than nature-worship4 ,at first the teraphim1 or tutelar household deities1 play an important part1 but nature-gods1 such as ,baal1 and ,moloch1 and ,astarte1 are extensively worshipped4 ,it is the plural elohim who create the earth1 and whose sons visit the daughters of antediluvian men4 ,the tutelar deity1 ,jehovah1 is originally thought of as one of the elohim1 then as chief among elohim1 and ,lord of the hosts of heaven4 ,through his favour his chosen prophet overcomes the prophets of ,baal1 he is greater than the deities of neighbouring peoples1 he is the only true god1 and thus finally he is thought of as the only ,god1 and his name becomes the symbol of monotheism4 ,the ,jews have always been one of the most highly-gifted races in the world4 ,in antiquity they developed an intense sentiment of nationality1 and for earnestness and depth of ethical feeling they surpassed all other peoples4 ,the conception of ,jehovah set forth in the writings of the prophets was the loftiest conception of deity anywhere attained before the time of ,christ2 in ethical value it immeasurably surpassed anything to be found in the pantheon of the ,greeks and ,romans4 ,it was natural that such a conception of deity should be adopted throughout the ,roman world4 ,at the beginning of the ,christian era the classic polytheism had well-nigh lost its hold upon men's minds2 its value had become chiefly literary1 as a mere collection of pretty stories2 it had begun its descent into the humble realm of folk-lore4 ,for want of anything better people had recourse to elaborate ,eastern ceremonials1 or contented themselves with the time-honoured domestic worship of the lares and penates4 ,yet their minds were ripe for some kind of monotheism1 and in order that the ,jewish conception should come to be generally adopted1 it was only necessary that it should be freed from its limitations of nationality1 and that ,jehovah should be set forth as ,sustainer of the universe and ,father of all mankind4 ,this was done by ,jesus and ,paul4 ,the theory of divine action implied throughout the gospels and the epistles was the first complete monotheism attained by mankind1 or at least by that portion of it from which our modern civilization has descended4 ,here for the first time we have the idea of ,god dissociated from the limiting circumstances with which it had been entangled in all the ethnic religions of antiquity4 ,individual thinkers here and there had already1 doubtless1 reached an equally true conception1 as was shown by ,kleanthes in his sublime hymn to ,zeus2#i but it was now for the first time set forth in such wise as to win assent from the common folk as well as the philosophers1 and to make its way into the hearts of all men4 ,its acceptance was hastened1 and its hold upon mankind immeasurably strengthened1 by the divinely beautiful ethical teaching in which ,jesus couched it1--that teaching1 so often misunderstood yet so profoundly true1 which heralded the time when ,man shall have thrown off the burden of his bestial inheritance and strife and sorrow shall cease from the earth4#aj ,we shall presently see that in its fundamental features the theism of ,jesus and ,paul was so true that it must endure as long as man endures4 ,changes of statement may alter the outward appearance of it1 but the kernel of truth will remain the same forever4 ,but the shifting body of religious doctrine known as ,christianity has at various times contained much that is unknown to this pure theism1 and much that has shown itself to be ephemeral in its hold upon men4 ,the change from polytheism to monotheism could not be thoroughly accomplished all at once4 ,as ,christianity spread over the ,roman world it became encrusted with pagan notions and observances1 and a similar process went on during the conversion of the ,teutonic barbarians4 ,yuletide and ,easter and other church holidays were directly adopted from the old nature-worship2 the adoration of tutelar household deities survived in the homage paid to patron saints2 and the worship of the ,berecynthian ,mother was continued in that of the ,virgin ,mary4#aa ,even the name ,god1 applied to the ,deity throughout ,teutonic ,christendom1 seems to be neither more nor less than ,wodan1 the personification of the storm-wind1 the supreme divinity of our pagan forefathers4,b ,b ,see note ,b4 at the end of the volume4 ,that ,christianity should thus have retained names and symbols and rites belonging to heathen antiquity was inevitable4 ,the system of ,christian theism was the work of some of the loftiest minds that have ever appeared upon the earth2 but it was adopted by millions of men and women1 of all degrees of knowledge and ignorance1 of keenness and dullness1 of spirituality and grossness1 and these brought to it their various inherited notions and habits of thought4 ,in all its ages1 therefore1 ,christian theism has meant one thing to one person1 and another thing to another4 ,while the highest ,christian minds have always been monotheistic1 the multitude have outgrown polytheism but slowly2 and even the monotheism of the highest minds has been coloured by notions ultimately derived from the primeval ghost-world which have interfered with its purity1 and have seriously hampered men in their search after truth4 ,in illustration of this point we have now to notice two strongly contrasted views of the divine nature which have been held by ,christian theists1 and to observe their bearings upon the scientific thought of modern times4 ,v4 ,the ,idea of ,god as immanent in the ,world4 ,we have seen that since the primitive savage philosophy did not distinguish between the human ghost and the elemental demon or deity1 the religion of antiquity was an inextricable tangle of ancestor-worship with nature-worship4 ,nevertheless1 among some peoples the one1 among others the other1 became predominant4 ,i think it can hardly be an accidental coincidence that nature-worship predominated with the ,greeks and ,hindus1 the only peoples of antiquity who accomplished anything in the exact sciences1 or in metaphysics4 ,the capacity for abstract thinking which led the ,hindu to originate algebra1 and the ,greek to originate geometry1 and both to attempt elaborate scientific theories of the universe1--this same capacity revealed itself in the manner in which they deified the powers of nature4 ,they were able to imagine the indwelling spirit of the sun or the storm without help from the conception of an individual ghost4 ,such being the general capacity of the people1 we can readily understand how1 when it came to monotheism1 their most eminent thinkers should have been able to frame the conception of ,god acting in and through the powers of nature1 without the aid of any grossly anthropomorphic symbolism4 ,in this connection it is interesting to observe the characteristics of the idea of ,god as conceived by the three greatest fathers of the ,greek church1 ,clement of ,alexandria1 ,origen1 and ,athanasius4 ,the philosophy of these profound and vigorous thinkers was in large measure derived from the ,stoics4 ,they regarded ,deity as immanent in the universe1 and eternally operating through natural laws4 ,in their view ,god is not a localizable personality1 remote from the world1 and acting upon it only by means of occasional portent and prodigy2 nor is the world a lifeless machine blindly working after some preordained method1 and only feeling the presence of ,god in so far as he now and then sees fit to interfere with its normal course of procedure4 ,on the contrary1 ,god is the ever-present life of the world2 it is through him that all things exist from moment to moment1 and the natural sequence of events is a perpetual revelation of the divine wisdom and goodness4 ,in accordance with this fundamental view1 ,clement1 for example1 repudiated the ,gnostic theory of the vileness of matter1 condemned asceticism1 and regarded the world as hallowed by the presence of indwelling ,deity4 ,knowing no distinction between what man discovers and what ,god reveals1 he explained ,christianity as a natural development from the earlier religious thought of mankind4 ,it was essential to his idea of the divine perfection that the past should contain within itself all the germs of the future2 and accordingly he attached but slight value to tales of miracle1 and looked upon salvation as the normal ripening of the higher spiritual qualities of man under the guidance of immanent ,deity4 ,the views of ,clement's disciple ,origen are much like those of his master4 ,athanasius ventured much farther into the bewildering regions of metaphysics4 ,yet in his doctrine of the ,trinity1 by which he overcame the visible tendency toward polytheism in the theories of ,arius1 and averted the threatened danger of a compromise between ,christianity and ,paganism1 he proceeded upon the lines which ,clement had marked out4 ,in his very suggestive work on ,the ,continuity of ,christian ,thought1 ,professor ,alexander ,allen thus sets forth the ,athanasian point of view3 ,in the formula of ,father1 ,son1 and ,holy ,spirit1 as three distinct and coequal members in the one divine essence1 there was the recognition and the reconciliation of the philosophical schools which had divided the ancient world4 ,in the idea of the eternal ,father the ,oriental mind recognized what it liked to call the profound abyss of being1 that which lies back of all phenomena1 the hidden mystery which lends awe to human minds seeking to know the divine4 ,in the doctrine of the eternal ,son revealing the ,father1 immanent in nature and humanity as the life and light shining through all created things1 the divine reason in which the human reason shares1 there was the recognition of the truth after which ,plato and ,aristotle and the ,stoics were struggling1--the tie which binds the creation to ,god in the closest organic relationship4 ,in the doctrine of the ,holy ,spirit the church guarded against any pantheistic confusion of ,god with the world by upholding the life of the manifested ,deity as essentially ethical or spiritual1 revealing itself in humanity in its highest form1 only in so far as humanity recognized its calling and through the ,spirit entered into communion with the ,father and the ,son4 ,great as was the service which these views of ,athanasius rendered in the fourth century of our era1 they are scarcely to be regarded as a permanent or essential feature of ,christian theism4 ,the metaphysic in which they are couched is alien to the metaphysic of our time1 yet through this vast difference it is all the more instructive to note how closely ,athanasius approaches the confines of modern scientific thought1 simply through his fundamental conception of ,god as the indwelling life of the universe4 ,we shall be still more forcibly struck with this similarity when we come to consider the character impressed upon our idea of ,god by the modern doctrine of evolution4 ,,vi4 ,the ,idea of ,god as remote from the ,world4 ,but this ,greek conception of divine immanence did not find favour with the ,latin-speaking world4 ,there a very different notion prevailed1 the origin of which may be traced to the mental habits attending the primitive ancestor-worship4 ,out of materials furnished by the ghost-world a crude kind of monotheism could be reached by simply carrying back the thought to a single ghost-deity as the original ancestor of all the others4 ,some barbarous races have gone as far as this1 as for example the ,zulus1 who have developed the doctrine of divine ancestors so far as to recognize a first ancestor1 the ,great ,father1 ,unkulunkulu1 who created the world4#ab ,the kind of theism reached by this process of thought differs essentially from the theism reached through the medium of nature-worship4 ,for whereas in the latter case the god of the sky or the sea is regarded as a mysterious spirit acting in and through the phenomena1 in the former case the phenomena are regarded as coerced into activity by some power existing outside of them1 and this power is conceived as manlike in the crudest sense1 having been originally thought of as the ghost of some man who once lived upon the earth4 ,in the monotheism which is reached by thinking along these lines of inference1 the universe is conceived as an inert lifeless machine1 impelled by blind forces which have been set acting from without2 and ,god is conceived as existing apart from the world in solitary inaccessible majesty1--an absentee ,god1 as ,carlyle says1 sitting idle ever since the first ,sabbath1 at the outside of his universe1 and 'seeing it go4' ,this conception demands less of the intellect than the conception of ,god as immanent in the universe4 ,it requires less grasp of mind and less width of experience1 and it has accordingly been much the more common conception4 ,the idea of the indwelling ,god is an attempt to reach out toward the reality1 and as such it taxes the powers of the finite mind4 ,the idea of ,god external to the universe is a symbol which in no wise approaches the reality1 and for that very reason it does not tax the mental powers2 there is an aspect of finality about it1 in which the ordinary mind rests content and complains of whatever seeks to disturb its repose4 ,i must not be understood as ignoring the fact that this lower species of theism has been entertained by some of the loftiest minds of our race1 both in ancient and in modern times4 ,when once such an ever-present conception as the idea of ,god has become intertwined with the whole body of the thoughts of mankind1 it is very difficult for the most powerful and subtle intelligence to change the form it has taken4 ,it has become so far organized into the texture of the mind that it abides there unconsciously1 like our fundamental axioms about number and magnitude2 it sways our thought hither and thither without our knowing it4 ,the two forms of theism here contrasted have slowly grown up under the myriad unassignable influences that in antiquity caused nature-worship to predominate among some people and ancestor-worship among others2 they have coloured all the philosophizing that has been done for more than twenty centuries2 and it is seldom that a thinker educated under the one form ever comes to adopt the other and habitually employ it1 save under the mighty influence of modern science1 the tendency of which1 as we shall presently see1 is all in one direction4 ,among ancient thinkers the view of ,deity as remote from the world prevailed with the followers of ,epikuros1 who held that the immortal gods could not be supposed to trouble themselves about the paltry affairs of men1 but lived a blessed life of their own1 undisturbed in the far-off empyrean4 ,this left the world quite under the sway of blind forces1 and thus we find it depicted in the marvellous poem of ,lucretius1 one of the loftiest monuments of ,latin genius4 ,it is to all appearance an atheistic world1 albeit the author was perhaps more profoundly religious in spirit than any other ,roman that ever lived1 save ,augustine2 yet to his immediate scientific purpose this atheism was no drawback4 ,when we are investigating natural phenomena1 with intent to explain them scientifically1 our proper task is simply to ascertain the physical conditions under which they occur1 and the less we meddle with metaphysics or theology the better4 ,as ,laplace said1 the mathematician1 in solving his equations1 does not need the hypothesis of ,god4#ac ,to the scientific investigator1 as such1 the forces of nature are doubtless blind1 like the x and y in algebra1 but this is only so long as he contents himself with describing their modes of operation2 when he undertakes to explain them philosophically1 as we shall see1 he can in no wise dispense with his theistic hypothesis4 ,the ,lucretian philosophy1 therefore1 admirable as a scientific cordination of such facts about the physical universe as were then known1 goes but very little way as a philosophy4 ,it is interesting to note that this atheism followed directly from that species of theism which placed ,god outside of his universe4 ,we shall find the case of modern atheism to be quite similar4 ,as soon as this crude and misleading conception of ,god is refuted1 as the whole progress of scientific knowledge tends to refute it1 the modern atheist or positivist falls back upon his universe of blind forces and contents himself with it1 while zealously shouting from the housetops that this is the whole story4 ,to one familiar with ,christian ideas1 the notion that ,man is too insignificant a creature to be worth the notice of ,deity seems at once pathetic and grotesque4 ,in the view of ,plato1 by which all ,christendom has been powerfully influenced1 there is profound pathos4 ,the wickedness and misery of the world wrought so strongly upon ,plato's keen sympathies and delicate moral sense that he came to conclusions almost as gloomy as those of the ,buddhist who regards existence as an evil4 ,in the ,timaios he depicts the material world as essentially vile2 he is unable to think of the pure and holy ,deity as manifested in it1 and he accordingly separates the ,creator from his creation by the whole breadth of infinitude4 ,this view passed on to the ,gnostics1 for whom the puzzling problem of philosophy was how to explain the action of the spiritual ,god upon the material universe4 ,sometimes the interval was bridged by mediating ons or emanations partly spiritual and partly material2 sometimes the world was held to be the work of the devil1 and in no sense divine4#ad ,the ,greek fathers under the lead of ,clement1 espousing the higher theism1 kept clear of this torrent of ,gnostic thought2 but upon ,augustine it fell with full force1 and he was carried away with it4 ,in his earlier writings ,augustine showed himself not incapable of comprehending the views of ,clement and ,athanasius2 but his intense feeling of man's wickedness dragged him irresistibly in the opposite direction4 ,in his doctrine of original sin1 he represents humanity as cut off from all relationship with ,god1 who is depicted as a crudely anthropomorphic ,being far removed from the universe and accessible only through the mediating offices of an organized church4 ,compared with the thoughts of the ,greek fathers this was a barbaric conception1 but it was suited alike to the lower grade of culture in western ,europe1 and to the ,latin political genius1 which in the decline of the ,empire was already occupying itself with its great and beneficent work of constructing an imperial ,church4 ,for these reasons the ,augustinian theology prevailed1 and in the ,dark ,ages which followed it became so deeply inwrought into the innermost fibres of ,latin ,christianity that it remains dominant to-day alike in ,catholic and ,protestant churches4 ,with few exceptions every child born of ,christian parents in western ,europe or in ,america grows up with an idea of ,god the outlines of which were engraven upon men's minds by ,augustine fifteen centuries ago4 ,nay1 more1 it is hardly too much to say that three fourths of the body of doctrine currently known as ,christianity1 unwarranted by ,scripture and never dreamed of by ,christ or his apostles1 first took coherent shape in the writings of this mighty ,roman1 who was separated from the apostolic age by an interval of time like that which separates us from the invention of printing and the discovery of ,america4 ,the idea of ,god upon which all this ,augustinian doctrine is based is the idea of a ,being actuated by human passions and purposes1 localizable in space and utterly remote from that inert machine1 the universe in which we live1 and upon which ,he acts intermittently through the suspension of what are called natural laws4 ,so deeply has this conception penetrated the thought of ,christendom that we continually find it at the bottom of the speculations and arguments of men who would warmly repudiate it as thus stated in its naked outlines4 ,it dominates the reasonings alike of believers and skeptics1 of theists and atheists2 it underlies at once the objections raised by orthodoxy against each new step in science and the assaults made by materialism upon every religious conception of the world2 and thus it is chiefly responsible for that complicated misunderstanding which1 by a lamentable confusion of thought1 is commonly called the conflict between religion and science4 ,,vii4 ,conflict between the ,two ,ideas1 commonly misunderstood as a ,conflict between ,religion and ,science4 ,in illustration of the mischief that has been wrought by the ,augustinian conception of ,deity1 we may cite the theological objections urged against the ,newtonian theory of gravitation and the ,darwinian theory of natural selection4 ,leibnitz1 who as a mathematician but little inferior to ,newton himself might have been expected to be easily convinced of the truth of the theory of gravitation1 was nevertheless deterred by theological scruples from accepting it4 ,it appeared to him that it substituted the action of physical forces for the direct action of the ,deity4 ,now the fallacy of this argument of ,leibnitz is easy to detect4 ,it lies in a metaphysical misconception of the meaning of the word force4 ,force is implicitly regarded as a sort of entity or dmon which has a mode of action distinguishable from that of ,deity2 otherwise it is meaningless to speak of substituting the one for the other4 ,but such a personification of force is a remnant of barbaric thought1 in no wise sanctioned by physical science4 ,when astronomy speaks of two planets as attracting each other with a force which varies directly as their masses and inversely as the squares of their distances apart1 it simply uses the phrase as a convenient metaphor by which to describe the manner in which the observed movements of the two bodies occur4 ,it explains that in presence of each other the two bodies are observed to change their positions in a certain specified way1 and this is all that it means4 ,this is all that a strictly scientific hypothesis can possibly allege1 and this is all that observation can possibly prove4 ,whatever goes beyond this and imagines or asserts a kind of pull between the two bodies1 is not science1 but metaphysics4 ,an atheistic metaphysics may imagine such a pull1 and may interpret it as the action of something that is not ,deity1 but such a conclusion can find no support in the scientific theorem1 which is simply a generalized description of phenomena4 ,the general considerations upon which the belief in the existence and direct action of ,deity is otherwise founded are in no wise disturbed by the establishment of any such scientific theorem4 ,we are still perfectly free to maintain that it is the direct action of ,deity which is manifested in the planetary movements2 having done nothing more with our ,newtonian hypothesis than to construct a happy formula for expressing the mode or order of the manifestation4 ,we may have learned something new concerning the manner of divine action2 we certainly have not substituted any other kind of action for it4 ,and what is thus obvious in this simple astronomical example is equally true in principle in every case whatever in which one set of phenomena is interpreted by reference to another set4 ,in no case whatever can science use the words force or cause except as metaphorically descriptive of some observed or observable sequence of phenomena4 ,and consequently at no imaginable future time1 so long as the essential conditions of human thinking are maintained1 can science even attempt to substitute the action of any other power for the direct action of ,deity4 ,the theological objection urged by ,leibnitz against ,newton was repeated word for word by ,agassiz in his comments upon ,darwin4 ,he regarded it as a fatal objection to the ,darwinian theory that it appeared to substitute the action of physical forces for the creative action of ,deity4 ,the fallacy here is precisely the same as in ,leibnitz's argument4 ,mr4 ,darwin has convinced us that the existence of highly complicated organisms is the result of an infinitely diversified aggregate of circumstances so minute as severally to seem trivial or accidental2 yet the consistent theist will always occupy an impregnable position in maintaining that the entire series in each and every one of its incidents is an immediate manifestation of the creative action of ,god4 ,in this connection it is worth while to state explicitly what is the true province of scientific explanation4 ,is it not obvious that since a philosophical theism must regard divine power as the immediate source of all phenomena alike1 therefore science cannot properly explain any particular group of phenomena by a direct reference to the action of ,deity8 ,such a reference is not an explanation1 since it adds nothing to our previous knowledge either of the phenomena or of the manner of divine action4 ,the business of science is simply to ascertain in what manner phenomena coexist with each other or follow each other1 and the only kind of explanation with which it can properly deal is that which refers one set of phenomena to another set4 ,in pursuing this1 its legitimate business1 science does not touch on the province of theology in any way1 and there is no conceivable occasion for any conflict between the two4 ,from this and the previous considerations taken together it follows not only that such explanations as are contained in the ,newtonian and ,darwinian theories are entirely consistent with theism1 but also that they are the only kind of explanations with which science can properly concern itself at all4 ,to say that complex organisms were directly created by the ,deity is to make an assertion which1 however true in a theistic sense1 is utterly barren4 ,it is of no profit to theism1 which must be taken for granted before the assertion can be made2 and it is of no profit to science1 which must still ask its question1 ,how8#ae ,we are now prepared to see that the theological objection urged against the ,newtonian and ,darwinian theories has its roots in that imperfect kind of theism which ,augustine did so much to fasten upon the western world4 ,obviously if ,leibnitz and ,agassiz had been educated in that higher theism shared by ,clement and ,athanasius in ancient times with ,spinoza and ,goethe in later days1--if they had been accustomed to conceive of ,god as immanent in the universe and eternally creative1--then the argument which they urged with so much feeling would never have occurred to them4 ,by no possibility could such an argument have entered their minds4 ,to conceive of physical forces as powers of which the action could in any wise be substituted for the action of ,deity would in such case have been absolutely impossible4 ,such a conception involves the idea of ,god as remote from the world and acting upon it from outside4 ,the whole notion of what theological writers are fond of calling secondary causes involves such an idea of ,god4 ,the higher or ,athanasian theism knows nothing of secondary causes in a world where every event flows directly from the eternal ,first ,cause4 ,it knows nothing of physical forces save as immediate manifestations of the omnipresent creative power of ,god4 ,in the personification of physical forces1 and the implied contrast between their action and that of ,deity1 there is something very like a survival of the habits of thought which characterized ancient polytheism4 ,what are these personified forces but little gods who are supposed to be invading the sacred domain of the ruler ,zeus8 ,when one speaks of substituting the action of ,gravitation for the direct action of ,deity1 does there not hover somewhere in the dim background of the conception a vague spectre of ,gravitation in the guise of a rebellious ,titan8 ,doubtless it would not be easy to bring any one to acknowledge such a charge1 but the unseen and unacknowledged part of a fallacy is just that which is most persistent and mischievous4 ,it is not so many generations1 after all1 since our ancestors were barbarians and polytheists2 and fragments of their barbaric thinking are continually intruding unawares into the midst of our lately-acquired scientific culture4 ,in most philosophical discussions a great deal of loose phraseology is used1 in order to find the proper connotations of which we must go back to primitive and untutored ages4 ,such is eminently the case with the phrases in which the forces of nature are personified and described as something else than manifestations of omnipresent ,deity4 ,this subject is of such immense importance that ,i must illustrate it from yet another point of view4 ,we must observe the manner in which1 along with the progress of scientific discovery1 theological arguments have come to be permeated by the strange assumption that the greater part of the universe is godless4 ,here again we must go back for a moment to the primeval world and observe how behind every physical phenomenon there were supposed to be quasi-human passions and a quasi-human will4 ,now the phenomena which were first arranged and systematized in men's thoughts1 and thus made the subject of something like scientific generalization1 were the simplest1 the most accessible1 and the most manageable phenomena2 and from these the conception of a quasi-human will soonest faded away4 ,there are savages who believe that hatchets and kettles have souls1 but men unquestionably outgrew such a belief as this long before they outgrew the belief that there are ghost-like deities in the tempest1 or in the sun and moon4 ,after many ages of culture1 men ceased to regard the familiar and regularly-recurring phenomena of nature as immediate results of volition1 and reserved this primeval explanation for unusual or terrible phenomena1 such as comets and eclipses1 or famines and plagues4 ,as the result of these habits of thought1 in course of time1 ,nature seemed to be divided into two antithetical provinces4 ,on the one hand1 there were the phenomena that occurred with a simple regularity which seemed to exclude the idea of capricious volition2 and these were supposed to constitute the realm of natural law4 ,on the other hand1 there were the complex and irregular phenomena in which the presence of law could not so easily be detected2 and these were supposed to constitute the realm of immediate divine action4 ,this antithesis has forever haunted the minds of men imbued with the lower or ,augustinian theism2 and such have made up the larger part of the ,christian world4 ,it has tended to make the theologians hostile to science and the men of science hostile to theology4 ,for as scientific generalization has steadily extended the region of natural law1 the region which theology has assigned to divine action has steadily diminished4 ,every discovery in science has stripped off territory from the latter province and added it to the former4 ,every such discovery has accordingly been promulgated and established in the teeth of bitter and violent opposition on the part of theologians4 ,a desperate fight it has been for some centuries1 in which science has won every disputed position1 while theology1 untaught by perennial defeat1 still valiantly defends the little corner that is left it4 ,still as of old the ordinary theologian rests his case upon the assumption of disorder1 caprice1 and miraculous interference with the course of nature4 ,he naively asks1 ,if plants and animals have been naturally originated1 if the world as a whole has been evolved and not manufactured1 and if human actions conform to law1 what is there left for ,god to do8 ,if not formally repudiated1 is he not thrust back into the past eternity1 as an ultimate source of things1 which is postulated for form's sake1 but might as well1 for all practical purposes1 be omitted8#af ,the scientific inquirer may reply that the difficulty is one which theology has created for itself4 ,it is certainly not science that has relegated the creative activity of ,god to some nameless moment in the bygone eternity and left him without occupation in the present world4 ,it is not science that is responsible for the mischievous distinction between divine action and natural law4 ,that distinction is historically derived from a loose habit of philosophizing characteristic of ignorant ages1 and was bequeathed to modern times by the theology of the ,latin church4 ,small blame to the atheist who1 starting upon such a basis1 thinks he can interpret the universe without the idea of ,god6 ,he is but doing as well as he knows how1 with the materials given him4 ,one has only1 however1 to adopt the higher theism of ,clement and ,athanasius1 and this alleged antagonism between science and theology1 by which so many hearts have been saddened1 so many minds darkened1 vanishes at once and forever4 ,once really adopt the conception of an ever-present ,god1 without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground1 and it becomes self-evident that the law of gravitation is but an expression of a particular mode of divine action4 ,and what is thus true of one law is true of all laws4#ag ,the thinker in whose mind divine action is thus identified with orderly action1 and to whom a really irregular phenomenon would seem like a manifestation of sheer diabolism1 foresees in every possible extension of knowledge a fresh confirmation of his faith in ,god4 ,from his point of view there can be no antagonism between our duty as inquirers and our duty as worshippers4 ,to him no part of the universe is godless4 ,in the swaying to and fro of molecules and the ceaseless pulsations of ether1 in the secular shiftings of planetary orbits1 in the busy work of frost and raindrop1 in the mysterious sprouting of the seed1 in the everlasting tale of death and life renewed1 in the dawning of the babe's intelligence1 in the varied deeds of men from age to age1 he finds that which awakens the soul to reverential awe2 and each act of scientific explanation but reveals an opening through which shines the glory of the ,eternal ,majesty4 ,,viii4 ,anthropomorphic ,conceptions of ,god4 ,between the two ideas of ,god which we have exhibited in such striking contrast1 there is nevertheless one point of resemblance2 and this point is fundamental1 since it is the point in virtue of which both are entitled to be called theistic ideas4 ,in both there is presumed to be a likeness of some sort between ,god and ,man4 ,in both there is an element of anthropomorphism4 ,even upon this their common ground1 however1 there is a wide difference between the two conceptions4 ,in the one the anthropomorphic element is gross1 in the other it is refined and subtle4 ,the difference is so far-reaching that some years ago ,i proposed to mark it by contrasting these two conceptions of ,god as ,anthropomorphic ,theism and ,cosmic ,theism4 ,for the doctrine which represents ,god as immanent in the universe and revealing himself in the orderly succession of events1 the name ,cosmic ,theism is eminently appropriate3 but it is not intended by the antithetic nomenclature to convey the impression that in cosmic theism there is nothing anthropomorphic4#ah ,a theory which should regard the ,human ,soul as alien and isolated in the universe1 without any links uniting it with the eternal source of existence1 would not be theism at all4 ,it would be ,atheism1 which on its metaphysical side is the denial of anything psychical in the universe outside of human consciousness4 ,it is far enough from any such doctrine to the cosmic theism of ,clement and ,origen1 of ,spinoza and ,lessing and ,schleiermacher4 ,the difference1 however1 between this cosmic conception of ,god and the anthropomorphic conception held by ,tertullian and ,augustine1 ,calvin and ,voltaire and ,paley1 is sufficiently great to be described as a contrast4 ,the explanation of the difference must be sought far back in the historic genesis of the two conceptions4 ,cosmic theism1 as we have seen1 was reached through nature-worship with its notion of vast elemental spirits indwelling in physical phenomena4 ,anthropomorphic theism is descended from the notion of tutelar deities which was part of the primitive ancestor-worship4 ,in the process by which men attained to cosmic theism1 physical generalization was the chief agency at work2 but into anthropomorphic theism1 as we have seen1 there entered conceptions derived from men's political thinking4 ,for such a people as the ,romans1 who could deify ,imperator ,augustus in just the same way that the ,japanese have deified their ,mikado1 it was natural1 and easy to conceive of ,god as a monarch enthroned in the heavens and surrounded by a court of ministering angels4 ,such was the popular conception in the early ages of ,christianity1 and such it has doubtless remained with the mass of uninstructed people even to this day4 ,the very grotesqueness of the idea1 as it appears to the mind of a philosopher1 is an index of the ease with which it satisfies the mind of an uneducated man4 ,many persons1 no doubt1 have entertained this idea of ,god without ever giving it very definite shape1 and many have recognized it as in great measure symbolic3 yet nothing can be more certain than that untold thousands have conceived it in its full intensity of anthropomorphism4 ,alike in sermons and theological treatises1 in stately poetry and in every-day talk1 the ,deity has been depicted as pleased or angry1 as repenting of his own acts1 as soothed by adulation and quick to wreak vengeance upon silly people for blasphemous remarks4 ,in those curious bills of expenses for the medival miracle-plays1 along with charges of twopence for keeping up a fyre at hell mouthe1 we find such items as a shilling for a purple coat for ,god4 ,in one of these plays an angel who has just witnessed the crucifixion comes rushing into ,heaven1 crying1 ,wake up1 almighty ,father6 ,here are those beggarly ,jews killing your son1 and you asleep here like a drunkard6 ,devil take me if ,i knew anything about it6 is the drowsy reply4 ,not the slightest irreverence was intended in these miracle-plays1 which were the only dramatic performances tolerated by the medival church1 for the sake of their wholesome educational influence upon the common people4 ,in the light of such facts1 one sees that the representations of the ,deity as an old man of august presence1 with flowing hair and beard1 by the early modern painters1 must have meant to all save the highest minds much more than a mere symbol4 ,until one's thoughts have become accustomed to range far and wide over the universe it is doubtless impossible to frame a conception of ,deity that is not grossly anthropomorphic4 ,i remember distinctly the conception which ,i had formed when five years of age4 ,i imagined a narrow office just over the zenith1 with a tall standing-desk running lengthwise1 upon which lay several open ledgers bound in coarse leather4 ,there was no roof over this office1 and the walls rose scarcely five feet from the floor1 so that a person standing at the desk could look out upon the whole world4 ,there were two persons at the desk1 and one of them--a tall1 slender man1 of aquiline features1 wearing spectacles1 with a pen in his hand and another behind his ear--was ,god4 ,the other1 whose appearance ,i do not distinctly recall1 was an attendant angel4 ,both were diligently watching the deeds of men and recording them in the ledgers4 ,to my infant mind this picture was not grotesque1 but ineffably solemn1 and the fact that all my words and acts were thus written down1 to confront me at the day of judgment1 seemed naturally a matter of grave concern4 ,if we could cross-question all the men and women we know1 and still more all the children1 we should probably find that1 even in this enlightened age1 the conceptions of ,deity current throughout the civilized world contain much that is in the crudest sense anthropomorphic4 ,such1 at any rate1 seems to be the character of the conceptions with which we start in life4 ,with those whose studies lead them to ponder upon the subject in the light of enlarged experience1 these conceptions become greatly modified4 ,they lose their anthropomorphic definiteness1 they grow vague by reason of their expansion1 they become recognized as largely symbolic1 but they never quite lose all traces of their primitive form4 ,indeed1 as ,i said a moment ago1 they cannot do so4 ,the utter demolition of anthropomorphism would be the demolition of theism4 ,we have now to see what traces of its primitive form the idea of ,god can retain1 in the light of our modern knowledge of the universe4 ,,ix4 ,the ,argument from ,design4 ,the most highly refined and scientific form of anthropomorphic theism is that which we are accustomed to associate with ,paley and the authors of the ,bridgewater treatises4 ,it is not peculiar to ,christianity1 since it has been held by pagans and unbelievers as firmly as by the devoutest members of the church4 ,the argument from design is as old as ,sokrates1 and was relied on by ,voltaire and the ,english deists of the eighteenth century no less than by ,dr4 ,chalmers and ,sir ,charles ,bell4 ,upon this theory the universe is supposed to have been created by a ,being possessed of intelligence and volition essentially similar to the intelligence and volition of ,man4 ,this ,being is actuated by a desire for the good of his creatures1 and in pursuance thereof entertains purposes and adapts means to ends with consummate ingenuity4 ,the process by which the world was created was analogous to manufacture1 as being the work of an intelligent artist operating upon unintelligent materials objectively existing4 ,it is in accordance with this theory that books on natural theology1 as well as those text-books of science which deem it edifying to introduce theological reflections where they have no proper place1 are fond of speaking of the ,divine ,architect or the ,great ,designer4 ,this theory1 which is still commonly held1 was in high favour during the earlier part of the present century4 ,in view of the great and sudden advances which physical knowledge was making1 it seemed well worth while to consecrate science to the service of theology2 and at the same time1 in emphasizing the argument from design1 theology adopted the methods of science4 ,the attempt to discover evidences of beneficent purpose in the structure of the eye and ear1 in the distribution of plants and animals over the earth's surface1 in the shapes of the planetary orbits and the inclinations of their axes1 or in any other of the innumerable arrangements of nature1 was an attempt at true induction2 and high praise is due to the able men who have devoted their energies to reinforcing the argument4 ,by far the greater part of the evidence was naturally drawn from the organic world1 which began to be comprehensively studied in the mutual relations of all its parts in the time of ,lamarck and ,cuvier4 ,the organic world is full of unspeakably beautiful and wonderful adaptations between organisms and their environments1 as well as between the various parts of the same organism4 ,the unmistakable end of these adaptations is the welfare of the animal or plant2 they conduce to length and completeness of life1 to the permanence and prosperity of the species4 ,for some time1 therefore1 the arguments of natural theology seemed to be victorious along the whole line4 ,the same kind of reasoning was pushed farther and farther to explain the classification and morphology of plants and animals2 until the climax was reached in ,agassiz's remarkable ,essay on ,classification1 published in #ahei1 in which every organic form was not only regarded as a concrete thought of the ,creator interpretable by the human mind1 but this kind of explanation was expressly urged as a substitute for inquiries into the physical causes whereby such forms might have been originated4 ,in its best days1 however1 there was a serious weakness in the argument from design1 which was ably pointed out by ,mr4 ,mill1 in an essay wherein he accords much more weight to the general argument than could now by any possibility be granted it4 ,its fault was the familiar logical weakness of proving too much4 ,the very success of the argument in showing the world to have been the work of an intelligent ,designer made it impossible to suppose that ,creator to be at once omnipotent and absolutely benevolent4 ,for nothing can be clearer than that ,nature is full of cruelty and maladaptation4 ,in every part of the animal world we find implements of torture surpassing in devilish ingenuity anything that was ever seen in the dungeons of the ,inquisition4 ,we are introduced to a scene of incessant and universal strife1 of which it is not apparent on the surface that the outcome is the good or the happiness of anything that is sentient4 ,in pre-,darwinian times1 before we had gone below the surface1 no such outcome was discernible4 ,often1 indeed1 we find the higher life wantonly sacrificed to the lower1 as instanced by the myriads of parasites apparently created for no other purpose than to prey upon creatures better than themselves4 ,such considerations bring up1 with renewed emphasis1 the everlasting problem of the origin of evil4 ,if the ,creator of such a world is omnipotent he cannot be actuated solely by a desire for the welfare of his creatures1 but must have other ends in view to which this is in some measure subordinated4 ,or if he is absolutely benevolent1 then he cannot be omnipotent1 but there is something in the nature of things which sets limits to his creative power4 ,this dilemma is as old as human thinking1 and it still remains a stumbling-block in the way of any theory of the universe that can possibly be devised4 ,but it is an obstacle especially formidable to any kind of anthropomorphic theism4 ,for the only avenue of escape is the assumption of an inscrutable mystery which would contain the solution of the problem if the human intellect could only penetrate so far2 and the more closely we invite a comparison between divine and human methods of working1 the more do we close up that only outlet4 ,the practical solution oftenest adopted has been that which sacrifices the ,creator's omnipotence in favour of his benevolence4 ,in the noblest of the purely ,aryan religions--that of which the sacred literature is contained in the ,zendavesta--the evil spirit ,ahriman exists independently of the will of the good ,ormuzd1 and is accountable for all the sin in the world1 but in the fullness of time he is to be bound in chains and shorn of his power for mischief4#ai ,this theory has passed into ,christendom in the form of ,manichism2 but its essential features have been adopted by orthodox ,christianity1 which at the same time has tried to grasp the other horn of the dilemma and save the omnipotence of the ,deity by paying him what ,mr4 ,mill calls the doubtful compliment of making him the creator of the devil4 ,by this device the essential polytheism of the conception is thinly veiled4 ,the confusion of thought has been persistently blinked by the popular mind2 but among the profoundest thinkers of the ,aryan race there have been two who have explicitly adopted the solution which limits the ,creator's power4 ,one of these was ,plato1 who held that ,god's perfect goodness has been partially thwarted by the intractableness of the materials he has had to work with4 ,this theory was carried to extremes by those ,gnostics who believed that ,god's work consisted in redeeming a world originally created by the devil1 and in orthodox ,christianity it gave rise to the ,augustinian doctrine of total depravity1 and the philosophy of the plan of salvation founded thereon4 ,the other great thinker who adopted a similar solution was ,leibnitz4 ,in his famous theory of optimism the world is by no means represented as perfect2 it is only the best of all possible worlds1 the best the ,creator could make out of the materials at hand4 ,in recent times ,mr4 ,mill shows a marked preference for this view1 and one of the foremost religious teachers now living1 ,dr4 ,martineau1 falls into a parallel line of thinking in his suggestion that the primary qualities of matter constitute a datum objective to ,god1 who1 in shaping the orbits out of immensity1 and determining seasons out of eternity1 could but follow the laws of curvature1 measure1 and proportion4#bj ,but indeed it is not necessary to refer to the problem of evil in order to show that the argument from design cannot prove the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent ,designer4 ,it is not omnipotence that contrives and plans and adapts means to ends4 ,these are the methods of finite intelligence2 they imply the overcoming of obstacles2 and to ascribe them to omnipotence is to combine words that severally possess meanings into a phrase that has no meaning4 ,god said1 ,let there be light3 and there was light4 ,in this noble description of creative omnipotence one would search in vain for any hint of contrivance4 ,the most the argument from design could legitimately hope to accomplish was to make it seem probable that the universe was wrought into its present shape by an intelligent and benevolent ,being immeasurably superior to ,man1 but far from infinite in power and resources4 ,such an argument hardly rises to the level of true theism4#ba ,x4 ,simile of the ,watch replaced by ,simile of the ,flower4 ,it was in its own chosen stronghold that this once famous argument was destined to meet its doom4 ,it was in the adaptations of the organic world1 in the manifold harmonies between living creatures and surrounding circumstances1 that it had seemed to find its chief support2 and now came the ,darwinian theory of natural selection1 and in the twinkling of an eye knocked all this support from under it4 ,it is not that the organism and its environment have been adapted to each other by an exercise of creative intelligence1 but it is that the organism is necessarily fitted to the environment because in the perennial slaughter that has gone on from the beginning only the fittest have survived4 ,or1 as it has been otherwise expressed1 the earth is suited to its inhabitants because it has produced them1 and only such as suit it live4 ,in the struggle for existence no individual peculiarity1 however slight1 that tends to the preservation of life is neglected4 ,it is unerringly seized upon and propagated by natural selection1 and from the cumulative action of such slight causes have come the beautiful adaptations of which the organic world is full4 ,the demonstration of this point1 through the labours of a whole generation of naturalists1 has been one of the most notable achievements of modern science1 and to the theistic arguments of ,paley and the ,bridgewater treatises it has dealt destruction4 ,but the ,darwinian theory of natural selection does not stand alone4 ,it is part of a greater whole4 ,it is the most conspicuous portion of that doctrine of evolution in which all the results hitherto attained by the great modern scientific movement are codified1 and which ,herbert ,spencer had already begun to set forth in its main outlines before the ,darwinian theory had been made known to the world4 ,this doctrine of evolution so far extends the range of our vision through past and future time as entirely to alter our conception of the universe4 ,our grandfathers1 in common with all preceding generations of men1 could and did suppose that at some particular moment in the past eternity the world was created in very much the shape which it has at present4 ,but our modern knowledge does not allow us to suppose anything of the sort4 ,we can carry back our thoughts through a long succession of great epochs1 some of them many millions of years in duration1 in each of which the innumerable forms of life that covered the earth were very different from what they were in all the others1 and in even the nearest of which they were notably different from what they are now4 ,we can go back still farther to the eras when the earth was a whirling ball of vapour1 or when it formed an equatorial belt upon a sun two hundred million miles in diameter1 or when the sun itself was but a giant nebula from which as yet no planet had been born4 ,and through all the vast sweep of time1 from the simple primeval vapour down to the multifarious world we know to-day1 we see the various forms of ,nature coming into existence one after the other in accordance with laws of which we are already beginning to trace the character and scope4 ,paley's simile of the watch is no longer applicable to such a world as this4 ,it must be replaced by the simile of the flower4 ,the universe is not a machine1 but an organism1 with an indwelling principle of life4 ,it was not made1 but it has grown4 ,that such a change in our conception of the universe marks the greatest revolution that has ever taken place in human thinking need scarcely be said4 ,but even in this statement we have not quite revealed the depth of the change4 ,not only has modern science made it clear that the varied forms of ,nature which make up the universe have arisen through a process of evolution1 but it has also made it clear that what we call the laws of ,nature have been evolved through the self-same process4 ,the axiom of the persistence of force1 upon which all modern science has come to rest1 involves as a necessary corollary the persistence of the relations between forces2 so that1 starting with the persistence of force and the primary qualities of matter1 it can be shown that all those uniformities of coexistence and succession which we call natural laws have arisen one after the other in connection with the forms which have afforded the occasions for their manifestation4 ,the all-pervading harmony of ,nature is thus itself a natural product1 and the last inch of ground is cut away from under the theologians who suppose the universe to have come into existence through a supernatural process of manufacture at the hands of a ,creator outside of itself4 ,,xi4 ,the ,craving for a ,final ,cause4 ,it appears1 then1 that the idea of ,god as remote from the world is not likely to survive the revolution in thought which the rapid increase of modern knowledge has inaugurated4 ,the knell of anthropomorphic or ,augustinian theism has already sounded4 ,this conclusion need not1 however1 disturb us when we consider how imperfect a form of theism this is which mankind is now outgrowing4 ,to get rid of the appearance of antagonism between science and religion will of itself be one of the greatest benefits ever conferred upon the human race4 ,it will forward science and purify religion1 and it will go far toward increasing kindness and mutual helpfulness among men4 ,since such happy results are likely to follow the general adoption of the cosmic or ,athanasian form of theism1 in place of the other form1 it becomes us to observe more specifically the manner in which this higher theism stands related to our modern knowledge4 ,to every form of theism1 as ,i have already urged1 an anthropomorphic element is indispensable4 ,it is quite true1 on the one hand1 that to ascribe what we know as human personality to the infinite ,deity straightway lands us in a contradiction1 since personality without limits is inconceivable4 ,but on the other hand1 it is no less true that the total elimination of anthropomorphism from the idea of ,god abolishes the idea itself4 ,this difficulty need not dishearten us1 for it is no more than we must expect to encounter on the threshold of such a problem as the one before us4 ,we do not approach the question in the spirit of those natural theologians who were so ready with their explanations of the divine purposes4 ,we are aware that we see as through a glass darkly1 and we do not expect to think ,god's thoughts after him save in the crudest symbolic fashion4 ,in dealing with the ,infinite we are confessedly treating of that which transcends our powers of conception4 ,our ability to frame ideas is strictly limited by experience1 and our experience does not furnish the materials for the idea of a personality which is not narrowly hemmed in by the inexorable barriers of circumstance4 ,we therefore cannot conceive such an idea4 ,but it does not follow that there is no reality answering to what such an idea would be if it could be conceived4 ,the test of inconceivability is only applicable to the world of phenomena from which our experience is gathered4 ,it fails when applied to that which lies behind phenomena4 ,i do not hold for this reason that we are justified in using such an expression as infinite personality in a philosophical inquiry where clearness of thought and speech is above all things desirable4 ,but ,i do hold1 most emphatically1 that we are not debarred from ascribing a quasi-psychical nature to the ,deity simply because we can frame no proper conception of such a nature as absolute and infinite4 ,the point is of vital importance to theism4 ,as ,kant has well said1 the conception of ,god involves not merely a blindly operating ,nature as the eternal root of things1 but a ,supreme ,being that shall be the author of all things by free and understanding action2 and it is this conception which alone has any interest for us4 ,it will be observed that ,kant says nothing here about contrivance4 ,by the phrase free and understanding action he doubtless means much the same that is here meant by ascribing to ,god a quasi-psychical nature4 ,and thus alone1 he says1 can we feel any interest in theism4 ,the thought goes deep1 yet is plain enough to every one4 ,the teleological instinct in ,man cannot be suppressed or ignored4 ,the human soul shrinks from the thought that it is without kith or kin in all this wide universe4 ,our reason demands that there shall be a reasonableness in the constitution of things4 ,this demand is a fact in our psychical nature as positive and irrepressible as our acceptance of geometrical axioms and our rejection of whatever controverts such axioms4 ,no ingenuity of argument can bring us to believe that the infinite ,sustainer of the universe will put us to permanent intellectual confusion4 ,there is in every earnest thinker a craving after a final cause2 and this craving can no more be extinguished than our belief in objective reality4 ,nothing can persuade us that the universe is a farrago of nonsense4 ,our belief in what we call the evidence of our senses is less strong than our faith that in the orderly sequence of events there is a meaning which our minds could fathom were they only vast enough4 ,doubtless in our own age1 of which it is a most healthful symptom that it questions everything1 there are many who1 through inability to assign the grounds for such a faith1 have persuaded themselves that it must be a mere superstition which ought not to be cherished2 but it is not likely that any one of these has ever really succeeded in ridding himself of it4 ,according to ,mr4 ,spencer1 the only ultimate test of reality is persistence1 and the only measure of validity among our primary beliefs is the success with which they resist all efforts to change them4 ,let us see1 then1 how it is with the belief in the essential reasonableness of the universe4 ,does this belief answer to any outward reality8 ,is there1 in the scheme of things1 aught that justifies ,man in claiming kinship of any sort with the ,god that is immanent in the world8 ,the difficulty in answering such questions has its root in the impossibility of framing a representative conception of ,deity2 but it is a difficulty which may1 for all practical purposes1 be surmounted by the aid of a symbolic conception4 ,,xii4 ,symbolic ,conceptions4 ,observe the meaning of this distinction4 ,of any simple object which can be grasped in a single act of perception1 such as a knife or a book1 an egg or an orange1 a circle or a triangle1 you can frame a conception which almost or quite exactly represents the object4 ,the picture or visual image in your mind when the orange is present to the senses is almost exactly reproduced when it is absent4 ,the distinction between the two lies chiefly in the relative vividness of the former as contrasted with the relative faintness of the latter4 ,but as the objects of thought increase in size and in complexity of detail1 the case soon comes to be very different4 ,you cannot frame a truly representative conception of the town in which you live1 however familiar you may be with its streets and houses1 its parks and trees1 and the looks and demeanour of the townsmen2 it is impossible to embrace so many details in a single mental picture4 ,the mind must range to and fro among the phenomena in order to represent the town in a series of conceptions4 ,but practically what you have in mind when you speak of the town is a fragmentary conception in which some portion of the object is represented1 while you are well aware that with sufficient pains a series of mental pictures could be formed which would approximately correspond to the object4 ,that is to say1 this fragmentary conception stands in your mind as a symbol of the town4 ,to some extent the conception is representative1 but to a great degree it is symbolic4 ,with a further increase in the size and complexity of the objects of thought1 our conceptions gradually lose their representative character1 and at length become purely symbolic4 ,no one can form a mental picture that answers even approximately to the earth4 ,even a homogeneous ball eight thousand miles in diameter is too vast an object to be conceived otherwise than symbolically1 and much more is this true of the ball upon which we live1 with all its endless multiformity of detail4 ,we imagine a globe and clothe it with a few terrestrial attributes1 and in our minds this fragmentary notion does duty as a symbol of the earth4 ,the case becomes still more striking when we have to deal with conceptions of the universe1 of cosmic forces such as light and heat1 or of the stupendous secular changes which modern science calls us to contemplate4 ,here our conceptions cannot even pretend to represent the objects2 they are as purely symbolic as the algebraic equations whereby the geometer expresses the shapes of curves4 ,yet so long as there are means of verification at our command1 we can reason as safely with these symbolic conceptions as if they were truly representative4 ,the geometer can at any moment translate his equation into an actual curve1 and thereby test the results of his reasoning2 and the case is similar with the undulatory theory of light1 the chemist's conception of atomicity1 and other vast stretches of thought which in recent times have revolutionized our knowledge of ,nature4 ,the danger in the use of symbolic conceptions is the danger of framing illegitimate symbols that answer to nothing in heaven or earth1 as has happened first and last with so many short-lived theories in science and in metaphysics4 ,forewarned of this danger1 and therefore--,i hope--forearmed against it1 let us see what a scientific philosophy has to say about the ,power that is manifested in and through the universe4 ,,xiii4 ,the ,eternal ,source of ,phenomena4 ,we have seen that before men could arrive at the idea of ,god1 before out of the old crude and fragmentary polytheisms there could be developed a pure and coherent theism1 it was necessary that physical generalization should have advanced far enough to enable them1 however imperfectly1 to reason about the universe as a whole4 ,it was a faint glimpse of the unity of ,nature that first led men to the conception of the unity of ,god1 and as their knowledge of the phenomenal fact becomes clearer1 so must their grasp upon the noumenal truth behind it become firmer4 ,now the whole tendency of modern science is to impress upon us ever more forcibly the truth that the entire knowable universe is an immense unit1 animated throughout all its parts by a single principle of life4 ,this conclusion1 which was long ago borne in upon the minds of prophetic thinkers1 like ,spinoza and ,goethe1 through their keen appreciation of the significance of the physical harmonies known to them1 has during the last fifty years received something like a demonstration in detail4 ,it is since ,goethe's death1 for example1 that it has been proved that the ,newtonian law of gravitation extends to the bodies which used to be called fixed stars4 ,that such was the case was already much more than probable1 but so lately as #ahce there were to be found writers on science1 such as ,comte1 who denied that it could ever be proved4 ,but a still more impressive illustration of the unity of ,nature is furnished by the luminiferous ether1 when considered in connection with the discovery of the correlation of forces4 ,the fathomless abysses of space can no longer be talked of as empty2 they are filled with a wonderful substance1 unlike any of the forms of matter which we can weigh and measure4 ,a cosmic jelly almost infinitely hard and elastic1 it offers at the same time no appreciable resistance to the movements of the heavenly bodies4 ,it is so sensitive that a shock in any part of it causes a tremour which is felt on the surface of countless worlds4 ,radiating in every direction1 from millions of centric points1 run shivers of undulation manifested in endless metamorphosis as heat1 or light1 or actinism1 as magnetism or electricity4 ,crossing one another in every imaginable way1 as if all space were crowded with a mesh-work of nerve-threads1 these motions go on forever in a harmony that nothing disturbs4 ,thus every part of the universe shares in the life of all the other parts1 as when in the solar atmosphere1 pulsating at its temperature of a million degrees ,fahrenheit1 a slight breeze instantly sways the needles in every compass-box on the face of the earth4 ,still further striking confirmation is found in the marvellous disclosures of spectrum analysis4 ,to whatever part of the heavens we turn the telescope1 armed with this new addition to our senses1 we find the same chemical elements with which the present century has made us familiar upon the surface of the earth4 ,from the distant worlds of ,arcturus and the ,pleiades1 whence the swift ray of light takes many years to reach us1 it brings the story of the hydrogen and oxygen1 the vapour of iron or sodium1 which set it in motion4 ,thus in all parts of the universe that have fallen within our ken we find a unity of chemical composition4 ,nebul1 stars1 and planets are all made of the same materials1 and on every side we behold them in different stages of development1 worlds in the making3 here an irregular nebula such as our solar system once was1 there a nebula whose rotation has at length wrought it into spheroidal form2 here and there stars of varied colours marking different eras in chemical evolution2 now planets still partly incandescent like ,saturn and ,jupiter1 then planets like ,mars and the earth1 with cool atmospheres and solid continents and vast oceans of water2 and lastly such bodies as the moon1 vapourless1 rigid1 and cold in death4 ,still nearer do we come toward realizing the unity of ,nature when we recollect that the law of evolution is not only the same for all these various worlds1 but is also the same throughout all other orders of phenomena4 ,not only in the development of cosmical bodies1 including the earth1 but also in the development of life upon the earth's surface and in the special development of those complex manifestations of life known as human societies1 the most general and fundamental features of the process are the same1 so that it has been found possible to express them in a single universal formula4 ,and what is most striking of all1 this notable formula1 under which ,herbert ,spencer has succeeded in generalizing the phenomena of universal evolution1 was derived from the formula under which ,von ,baer in #ahbi first generalized the mode of development of organisms from their embryos4 ,that a law of evolution first partially detected among the phenomena of the organic world should thereafter not only be found applicable to all other orders of phenomena1 but should find in this application its first complete and coherent statement1 is a fact of wondrous and startling significance4 ,it means that the universe as a whole is thrilling in every fibre with ,life1--not1 indeed1 life in the usual restricted sense1 but life in a general sense4 ,the distinction1 once deemed absolute1 between the living and the not-living is converted into a relative distinction2 and ,life as manifested in the organism is seen to be only a specialized form of the ,universal ,life4 ,the conception of matter as dead or inert belongs1 indeed1 to an order of thought that modern knowledge has entirely outgrown4 ,if the study of physics has taught us anything1 it is that nowhere in ,nature is inertness or quiescence to be found4 ,all is quivering with energy4 ,from particle to particle without cessation the movement passes on1 reappearing from moment to moment under myriad ,protean forms1 while the rearrangements of particles incidental to the movement constitute the qualitative differences among things4 ,now in the language of physics all motions of matter are manifestations of force1 to which we can assign neither beginning nor end4 ,matter is indestructible1 motion is continuous1 and beneath both these universal truths lies the fundamental truth that force is persistent4 ,the farthest reach in science that has ever been made was made when it was proved by ,herbert ,spencer that the law of universal evolution is a necessary consequence of the persistence of force4 ,it has shown us that all the myriad phenomena of the universe1 all its weird and subtle changes1 in all their minuteness from moment to moment1 in all their vastness from age to age1 are the manifestations of a single animating principle that is both infinite and eternal4 ,by what name1 then1 shall we call this animating principle of the universe1 this eternal source of phenomena8 ,using the ordinary language of physics1 we have just been calling it ,force1 but such a term in no wise enlightens us4 ,taken by itself it is meaningless2 it acquires its meaning only from the relations in which it is used4 ,it is a mere symbol1 like the algebraic expression which stands for a curve4 ,of what1 then1 is it the symbol8 ,the words which we use are so enwrapped in atmospheres of subtle associations that they are liable to sway the direction of our thoughts in ways of which we are often unconscious4 ,it is highly desirable that physics should have a word as thoroughly abstract1 as utterly emptied of all connotations of personality1 as possible1 so that it may be used like a mathematical symbol4 ,such a word is ,force4 ,but what we are now dealing with is by no means a scientific abstraction4 ,it is the most concrete and solid of realities1 the one ,reality which underlies all appearances1 and from the presence of which we can never escape4 ,suppose1 then1 that we translate our abstract terminology into something that is more concrete4 ,instead of the force which persists1 let us speak of the ,power which is always and everywhere manifested in phenomena4 ,our question1 then1 becomes1 ,what is this infinite and eternal ,power like8 ,what kind of language shall we use in describing it8 ,can we regard it as in any wise material1 or can we speak of its universal and ceaseless activity as in any wise the working of a blind necessity8 ,for here1 at length1 we have penetrated to the innermost kernel of the problem2 and upon the answer must depend our mental attitude toward the mystery of existence4 ,the answer is that we cannot regard the infinite and eternal ,power as in any wise material1 nor can we attribute its workings to blind necessity4 ,the eternal source of phenomena is the source of what we see and hear and touch2 it is the source of what we call matter1 but it cannot itself be material4 ,matter is but the generalized name we give to those modifications which we refer immediately to an unknown something outside of ourselves4 ,it was long ago shown that all the qualities of matter are what the mind makes them1 and have no existence as such apart from the mind4 ,in the deepest sense all that we really know is mind1 and as ,clifford would say1 what we call the material universe is simply an imperfect picture in our minds of a real universe of mind-stuff4#bb ,our own mind we know directly2 our neighbour's mind we know by inference2 that which is external to both is a ,power hidden from sense1 which causes states of consciousness that are similar in both4 ,such states of consciousness we call material qualities1 and matter is nothing but the sum of such qualities4 ,to speak of the hidden ,power itself as material is therefore not merely to state what is untrue1--it is to talk nonsense4 ,we are bound to conceive of the ,eternal ,reality in terms of the only reality that we know1 or else refrain from conceiving it under any form whatever4 ,but the latter alternative is clearly impossible4#bc ,we might as well try to escape from the air in which we breathe as to expel from consciousness the ,power which is manifested throughout what we call the material universe4 ,but the only conclusion we can consistently hold is that this is the very same power which in ourselves wells up under the form of consciousness4 ,in the nature-worship of primitive men1 beneath all the crudities of thought by which it was overlaid and obscured1 there was thus after all an essential germ of truth which modern philosophy is constrained to recognize and reiterate4 ,as the unity of ,nature has come to be demonstrated1 innumerable finite powers1 once conceived as psychical and deified1 have been generalized into a single infinite ,power that is still thought of as psychical4 ,from the crudest polytheism we have thus1 by a slow evolution1 arrived at pure monotheism1--the recognition of the eternal ,god indwelling in the universe1 in whom we live and move and have our being4 ,but in thus conceiving of ,god as psychical1 as a ,being with whom the human soul in the deepest sense owns kinship1 we must beware of too carelessly ascribing to ,him those specialized psychical attributes characteristic of humanity1 which one and all imply limitation and weakness4 ,we must not forget the warning of the prophet ,isaiah3 ,my thoughts are not your thoughts1 neither are your ways my ways1 saith the ,lord4 ,for as the heavens are higher than the earth1 so are my ways higher than your ways1 and my thoughts than your thoughts4 ,omniscience1 for example1 has been ascribed to ,god in every system of theism2 yet the psychical nature to which all events1 past1 present1 and future1 can be always simultaneously present is clearly as far removed from the limited and serial psychical nature of ,man as the heavens are higher than the earth4 ,we are not so presumptuous1 therefore1 as to attempt1 with some theologians of the anthropomorphic school1 to inquire minutely into the character of the divine decrees and purposes4 ,but our task would be ill-performed were nothing more to be said about that craving after a final cause which we have seen to be an essential element in ,man's religious nature4 ,it remains to be shown that there is a reasonableness in the universe1 that in the orderly sequence of events there is a meaning which appeals to our human intelligence4 ,without adopting ,paley's method1 which has been proved inadequate1 we may nevertheless boldly aim at an object like that at which ,paley aimed4 ,caution is needed1 since we are dealing with a symbolic conception as to which the very point in question is whether there is any reality that answers to it4 ,the problem is a hard one1 but here we suddenly get powerful help from the doctrine of evolution1 and especially from that part of it known as the ,darwinian theory4 ,,xiv4 ,the ,power that makes for ,righteousness4 ,although it was the ,darwinian theory of natural selection which overthrew the argument from design1 yet--as ,i have argued in another place--when thoroughly understood it will be found to replace as much teleology as it destroys4#bd ,indeed1 the doctrine of evolution1 in all its chapters1 has a certain teleological aspect1 although it does not employ those methods which in the hands of the champions of final causes have been found so misleading4 ,the doctrine of evolution does not regard any given arrangement of things as scientifically explained when it is shown to subserve some good purpose1 but it seeks its explanation in such antecedent conditions as may have been competent to bring about the arrangement in question4 ,nevertheless1 the doctrine of evolution is not only perpetually showing us the purposes which the arrangements of ,nature subserve1 but throughout one large section of the ground which it covers it points to a discernible dramatic tendency1 a clearly-marked progress of events toward a mighty goal4 ,now it especially concerns us to note that this large section is just the one1 and the only one1 which our powers of imagination are able to compass4 ,the astronomic story of the universe is altogether too vast for us to comprehend in such wise as to tell whether it shows any dramatic tendency or not4#be ,but in the story of the evolution of life upon the surface of our earth1 where alone we are able to compass the phenomena1 we see all things working together1 through countless ages of toil and trouble1 toward one glorious consummation4 ,it is therefore a fair inference1 though a bold one1 that if our means of exploration were such that we could compass the story of all the systems of worlds that shine in the spacious firmament1 we should be able to detect a similar meaning4 ,at all events1 the story which we can decipher is sufficiently impressive and consoling4 ,it clothes our theistic belief with moral significance1 reveals the intense and solemn reality of religion1 and fills the heart with tidings of great joy4 ,the glorious consummation toward which organic evolution is tending is the production of the highest and most perfect psychical life4 ,already the germs of this conclusion existed in the ,darwinian theory as originally stated1 though men were for a time too busy with other aspects of the theory to pay due attention to them4 ,in the natural selection of such individual peculiarities as conduce to the survival of the species1 and in the evolution by this process of higher and higher creatures endowed with capacities for a richer and more varied life1 there might have been seen a well-marked dramatic tendency1 toward the dnouement of which every one of the myriad little acts of life and death during the entire series of geologic ons was assisting4 ,the whole scheme was teleological1 and each single act of natural selection had a teleological meaning4 ,herein lies the reason why the theory so quickly destroyed that of ,paley4 ,it did not merely refute it1 but supplanted it with explanations which had the merit of being truly scientific1 while at the same time they hit the mark at which natural theology had unsuccessfully aimed4 ,such was the case with the ,darwinian theory as first announced4 ,but since it has been more fully studied in its application to the genesis of ,man1 a wonderful flood of light has been thrown upon the meaning of evolution1 and there appears a reasonableness in the universe such as had not appeared before4 ,it has been shown that the genesis of ,man was due to a change in the direction of the working of natural selection1 whereby psychical variations were selected to the neglect of physical variations4 ,it has been shown that one chief result of this change was the lengthening of infancy1 whereby ,man appeared on the scene as a plastic creature capable of unlimited psychical progress4 ,it has been shown that one chief result of the lengthening of infancy was the origination of the family and of human society endowed with rudimentary moral ideas and moral sentiments4 ,it has been shown that through these coperating processes the difference between ,man and all lower creatures has come to be a difference in kind transcending all other differences2 that his appearance upon the earth marked the beginning of the final stage in the process of development1 the last act in the great drama of creation2 and that all the remaining work of evolution must consist in the perfecting of the creature thus marvellously produced4 ,it has been further shown that the perfecting of ,man consists mainly in the ever-increasing predominance of the life of the soul over the life of the body4 ,and lastly1 it has been shown that1 whereas the earlier stages of human progress have been characterized by a struggle for existence like that through which all lower forms of life have been developed1 nevertheless the action of natural selection upon ,man is coming to an end1 and his future development will be accomplished through the direct adaptation of his wonderfully plastic intelligence to the circumstances in which it is placed4 ,hence it has appeared that war and all forms of strife1 having ceased to discharge their normal function1 and having thus become unnecessary1 will slowly die out2#bf that the feelings and habits adapted to ages of strife will ultimately perish from disuse2 and that a stage of civilization will be reached in which human sympathy shall be all in all1 and the spirit of ,christ shall reign supreme throughout the length and breadth of the earth4 ,these conclusions1 with the grounds upon which they are based1 have been succinctly set forth in my little book entitled ,the ,destiny of ,man viewed in the ,light of his ,origin4 ,startling as they may have seemed to some1 they are no more so than many of the other truths which have been brought home to us during this unprecedented age4 ,they are the fruit of a wide induction from the most vitally important facts which the doctrine of evolution has set forth2 and they may fairly claim recognition as an integral body of philosophic doctrine fit to stand the test of time4 ,here they are summarized as the final step in my argument concerning the true nature of theism4 ,they add new meanings to the idea of ,god1 as it is affected by modern knowledge1 while at the same time they do but give articulate voice to time-honoured truths which it was feared the skepticism of our age might have rendered dumb and powerless4 ,for if we express in its most concentrated form the meaning of these conclusions regarding ,man's origin and destiny1 we find that it affords the full justification of the fundamental ideas and sentiments which have animated religion at all times4 ,we see ,man still the crown and glory of the universe and the chief object of divine care1 yet still the lame and halting creature1 loaded with a brute-inheritance of original sin1 whose ultimate salvation is slowly to be achieved through ages of moral discipline4 ,we see the chief agency which produced him--natural selection which always works through strife--ceasing to operate upon him1 so that1 until human strife shall be brought to an end1 there goes on a struggle between his lower and his higher impulses1 in which the higher must finally conquer4 ,and in all this we find the strongest imaginable incentive to right living1 yet one that is still the same in principle with that set forth by the great ,teacher who first brought men to the knowledge of the true ,god4 ,as to the conception of ,deity1 in the shape impressed upon it by our modern knowledge1 ,i believe ,i have now said enough to show that it is no empty formula or metaphysical abstraction which we would seek to substitute for the living ,god4 ,the infinite and eternal ,power that is manifested in every pulsation of the universe is none other than the living ,god4 ,we may exhaust the resources of metaphysics in debating how far his nature may fitly be expressed in terms applicable to the psychical nature of ,man2 such vain attempts will only serve to show how we are dealing with a theme that must ever transcend our finite powers of conception4 ,but of some things we may feel sure4 ,humanity is not a mere local incident in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes4 ,the events of the universe are not the work of chance1 neither are they the outcome of blind necessity4 ,practically there is a purpose in the world whereof it is our highest duty to learn the lesson1 however well or ill we may fare in rendering a scientific account of it4 ,when from the dawn of life we see all things working together toward the evolution of the highest spiritual attributes of ,man1 we know1 however the words may stumble in which we try to say it1 that ,god is in the deepest sense a moral ,being4 ,the everlasting source of phenomena is none other than the infinite ,power that makes for righteousness4 ,thou canst not by searching find ,him out2 yet put thy trust in ,him1 and against thee the gates of hell shall not prevail2 for there is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the ,eternal4 ,,notes4 ,a4--,,meditations ,,of ,a ,,savage4 ,in the presence of the great mystery of existence1 the thoughts of the untutored savage are not always so very unlike those of civilized men1 as we may see from the following pathetic words of a ,kafir1 named ,sekese1 in conversation with a ,french traveller1 ,m4 ,arbrouseille1 on the subject of the ,christian religion3-- ,your tidings1 said this uncultivated barbarian1 are what ,i want1 and ,i was seeking before ,i knew you1 as you shall hear and judge for yourself4 ,twelve years ago ,i went to feed my flocks2 the weather was hazy4 ,i sat down upon a rock and asked myself sorrowful questions2 yes1 sorrowful1 because ,i was unable to answer them4 ,who has touched the stars with his hands--on what pillars do they rest1 ,i asked myself4 ,the waters never weary1 they know no other law than to flow without ceasing from morning till night and from night till morning2 but where do they stop1 and who makes them flow thus8 ,the clouds also come and go1 and burst in water over the earth4 ,whence come they--who sends them8 ,the diviners certainly do not give us rain2 for how could they do it8 and why do not ,i see them with my own eyes when they go up to heaven to fetch it8 ,i cannot see the wind2 but what is it8 who brings it1 makes it blow and roar and terrify us8 ,do ,i know how the corn sprouts8 ,yesterday there was not a blade in my field1 to-day ,i returned to the field and found some2 who can have given to the earth the wisdom and the power to produce it8 ,then ,i buried my head in both my hands4--,cited in ,,picton1 ,mystery of ,matter1 p4 #bbb4 ,b4--,,the ,,name ,,god4 ,none of the dictionaries offer a satisfactory explanation of the word ,god4 ,it was once commonly supposed to be related to the adjective good1 but ,grimm long ago showed that this connection is1 to say the least1 very improbable4 ,it has also been sought to identify it with ,persian ,khod1 from ,zend qvadata1 ,skr4 svadata1 ,lat4 a se datus1 in which the idea is that of self-existence2 but this fanciful etymology was exploded by ,aufrecht4 ,the arrant guesswork of ,donaldson1 who would connect ,god with kalos1 and theos with tithmi 7,new ,cratylus1 p4 #gaj71 scarcely deserves mention in these days4 ,among the more scientific philologists of our time1 ,august ,fick1 in treating of the ,wortschatz der germanischen ,spracheinheit1 simply refers ,god to a primitive ,teutonic gutha1 and says no more about it4 7,vergl4 ,woerterbuch der indogermanischen ,sprachen1 ,,iii4 #ajg47 ,he is followed by ,skeat 7,etymological ,dictionary1 p4 #bch71 who adds that there is no connection with good4 ,eduard ,mller says3 ,so bedenklich die zusammenstellung mit good1 so fraglich ist doch auch noch die urverwandtschaft mit pers4 ,khod gott1 oder skr4 gdha mysterium1 oder skr4 guddha purus2 ,heyne3 'als sich verhllender1 unsichtbarer1 vgl4 skr4 guh fr gudh celare4' 7,woerterbuch der englischen ,sprache1 p4 #def47 ,max ,mller has much more plausibly suggested that ,god was formerly a heathen name for the ,deity1 which passed into ,christian usage1 like the ,latin ,deus4 7,science of ,language1 #fth ed4 ,,ii4 #cag47 ,following this hint1 ,i suggested1 several years ago 7,north ,amer4 ,review1 ,oct4 #ahfi1 p4 #ced71 that ,god is probably identical with ,wodan or ,odin1 the name of the great ,northern deity1 the chief object of the worship of our forefathers4 ,this relation of an initial ,g to an initial ,w is a very common one2 as for example ,guillaume and ,william1 guerre and war1 guardian and warden1 guile and wile4 ,the same thing is seen in ,armorican guasta and ,ital4 guastare1 as compared with ,lat4 vastare1 ,eng4 waste2 and in the ,eng4 quick1 ,goth4 quivs1 ,lat4 vivus4 ,in ,erchempert's ,historia ,langobardorum1 #aa1 ,pertz1 ,,iii4 #bde1 we find ,ludoguicus for ,ludovicus4 ,not only is this relation a common one1 but there are plenty of specific instances of it in the case of ,wodan4 ,in ,germany we have the town names of ,godesberg1 ,gudenberg1 and ,godensholt1 all derived from ,wodan4 ,in the ,westphalian dialect1 ,wednesday 7day of ,wodan7 is called ,godenstag or ,gunstag2 in ,nether-,rhenish1 ,gudenstag2 in ,flemish1 ,goenstag4 ,see ,thorpe1 ,northern ,mythol4 ,i4 #bbi2 ,taylor1 ,words and ,places1 #cbc2 and cf4 ,grimm1 ,gesch4 der deutschen ,sprache1 #bif4 ,the ,westphalian ,saxons wrote both ,guodan and ,gudan4 ,odin was also called ,godin 7,laing1 ,heimskringla1 ,i4 #gd71 and ,paulus ,diaconus tells us that the ,lombards pronounced ,wodan as ,guodan4 ,in view of such a convergence of proofs1 ,i am surprised that attention was not long ago called to this etymology4 ,wodan was originally the storm-spirit or animating genius of the wind1 answering in many respects to the ,greek ,hermes and the ,vedic ,sarameyas4 ,see my ,myths and ,myth-makers1 #ai1 #bj1 #cb1 #ce1 #fg1 #abd1 #bjd2 and cf4 ,mackay1 ,religious ,development of the ,greeks and ,hebrews1 i4 #bfj-bgc4 ,,references4 ,m4 ,m41 ,myths and ,myth-makers1 #ahgb2 ,c4 ,p41 ,outlines of ,cosmic ,philosophy1 #ahgd2 ,u4 ,w41 ,the ,unseen ,world1 #ahgf2 ,d41 ,darwinism and ,other ,essays1 #ahgi2 ,e4 ,e41 ,excursions of an ,evolutionist1 #ahhd2 ,d4 ,m41 ,the ,destiny of ,man1 #ahhd2 ,a4 ,p4 ,i41 ,american ,political ,ideas1 #ahhe4 #a ,e4 ,e4 #ef-gg4 #b ,c4 ,p4 i4 #bcj4 #c ,c4 ,p4 i4 #aeg1 #agg-agi4 #d ,m4 ,m4 #ah-ba1 et passim4 #e ,m4 ,m4 #bbj4 #f ,m4 ,m4 #bcb4 #g ,m4 ,m4 #bcf2 ,e4 ,e4 #bea4 #h ,a4 ,p4 ,i4 #gh1 #ha4 #i ,u4 ,w4 #aj4 #aj ,d4 ,m4 #ajd-ajg4 #aa ,e4 ,e4 #bfb4 #ab ,m4 ,m4 #bcf4 #ac ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #chc4 #ad ,u4 ,w4 #aah4 #ae ,d4 #e-h2 ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #bhc4 #af1 #ag ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #dbh4 #ah ,c4 ,p4 i4 #ahc2 ii4 #ddi4 #ai ,m4 ,m4 #abb4 #bj ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #dje4 #ba ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #cha-daj4 #bb ,e4 ,e4 #cbg-ccf4 #bc ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #ddi4 #bd ,d4 ,m4 #aac2 cf4 ,c4 ,p4 ii4 #djf4 #be ,d4 #ajc4 #bf ,d4 ,m4 #gg-ie2 ,a4 ,p4 ,i4 #aja-aeb4 ,,important ,,books ,,by ,,john ,,fiske4 ,,outlines ,,of ,,cosmic ,,philosophy1 based on the ,doctrine of ,evolution4 ,with ,criticisms on the ,positive ,philosophy4 #b vols4 #hvo1 pp4 #dfe1 #ebc1 #f4jj4 ,mr4 ,,darwin1 after reading this work1 wrote as follows to ,mr4 ,fiske3-- ,you must allow me to thank you for the very great interest with which ,i have at last slowly read the whole of your work4444 ,i never in my life read so lucid an expositor 7and therefore thinker7 as you are2 and ,i think that ,i understand nearly the whole1 though perhaps less clearly about cosmic theism and causation than other parts4 ,it is hopeless to attempt out of so much to specify what has interested me most1 and probably you would not care to hear4 ,it pleased me to find that here and there ,i had arrived1 from my own crude thoughts1 at some of the same conclusions with you1 though ,i could seldom or never have given my reasons for such conclusions4 ,this work of ,mr4 ,fiske's may be not unfairly designated the most important contribution yet made by ,america to philosophical literature4444 ,his theory of the influence of prolonged infancy upon social development 7,part ,,ii41 chap4 xxii47 entitles ,mr4 ,fiske's work to be considered a distinctly important contribution to the theory of the origin of species1 and of the origin of man in particular4--,academy 7,london74 ,his most important suggestion1 that of the influence of the long period of feeble adolescence upon man's social development1 is1 we think1 a permanent contribution to the development theory4--,nation 7,new ,york74 ,he recognizes ,mr4 ,spencer as his teacher and guide2 but he has moulded the doctrines of his master into a popular form1 surrounded them with fresh and vivid illustrations1 pointed out their bearing upon great practical questions of the day1 and amply supplied the reader with materials for forming an intelligent judgment with respect to their merits4 ,mr4 ,fiske is himself a thinker of rare acuteness and depth2 his affluent store of knowledge is exhibited on every page2 and his mastery of expression is equal to his subtlety of speculation4--,,george ,,ripley1 in ,tribune 7,new ,york74 ,mr4 ,fiske's work 444 is the first important contribution made by ,america to the evolution philosophy1 444 and is well worth the study of all who wish to see at once the entire scope and purport of the scientific dogmatism of the day4--,saturday ,review 7,london74 ,the author asserts that a system of philosophy has been constructed1 out of purely scientific materials1 444 which opposes a direct negative to every one of the theorems of which ,positivism is made up4--,scotsman 7,edinburgh74 ,mr4 ,fiske is not a mere compiler from ,mr4 ,spencer's works1 nor is he simply a popularizer of an abstruse theory4 ,he works his way to the chief results of ,mr4 ,spencer's argument with independence and self-reliance4 ,in many places he has presented his master's doctrine in new aspects or carried it forward to new conclusions1 while throughout he adds something to the original from which he draws by freshness of illustration and individuality of literary style4444 ,it is curious to note the almost fierce persistence with which the author returns again and again to an attack on the doctrines of ,comte4444 ,the most striking part of ,mr4 ,fiske's social speculations is the hypothesis by which he proposes to bridge over the gulf which divides the merely gregarious and sympathetic brutes from morally constituted man 7,part ,,ii41 chap4 xxii474--,,james ,,sully1 in ,examiner 7,london74 ,mr4 ,fiske is a disciple who thinks for himself1 and who has no hesitation1 when necessary1 in criticising him whom he acknowledges as master4444 ,he is so thoroughly imbued with the philosophic spirit that his work merits a careful perusal2 it has the especial attraction of being written in excellent temper and admirable ,english4--,daily ,news 7,london74 ,mr4 ,fiske's work shows a complete and independent mastery of the subject in all its bearings1 together with a power of lucid and vigorous exposition unexcelled in any philosophical work with which we are acquainted4--,daily ,globe 7,boston74 ,it is our best ,american book on the evolution philosophy1 and deserves to rank with the productions of the great ,english thinkers4--,index 7,boston74 ,,darwinism ,,and ,,other ,,essays4 ,new ,edition1 enlarged4 #abmo1 pp4 #bhc1 #b4jj4 ,,contents3 ,darwinism ,verified2 ,mr4 ,mivart on ,darwinism2 ,dr4 ,bateman on ,darwinism2 ,dr4 ,bchner on ,darwinism2 ,a ,crumb for the ,modern ,symposium2 ,chauncey ,wright2 ,what is ,inspiration8 ,modern ,witchcraft2 ,comte's ,positive ,philosophy2 ,mr4 ,buckle's ,fallacies2 ,postscript on ,mr4 ,buckle2 ,the ,races of the ,danube2 ,liberal ,education2 ,university ,reform2 ,a ,librarian's ,work4 ,if ever there was a spirit thoroughly invigorated by the joy of right understanding it is that of the author of these pieces4 ,even the reader catches something of his intellectual buoyancy1 and is thus carried almost lightly through discussions which would be hard and dry in the hands of a less animated writer4444 ,no less confident and serene than his acceptance of the utmost logical results of recent scientific discovery is ,mr4 ,fiske's assurance that the foundations of spiritual truths1 so called1 cannot possibly be shaken thereby4444 ,warm personal admiration and acute critical discernment could not well be blended in finer proportions than in the article on the lamented ,mr4 ,wright4444 ,the article on ,mr4 ,buckle's ,fallacies has one aspect more remarkable than all the rest4 ,it was written and published when the ,history of ,civilization was new1--that is to say1 when the writer was nineteen years of age2 and the years--almost nineteen more--which have elapsed since then have rather confirmed than detracted from its value as a piece of criticism4 ,the judgment of posterity on the most ambitious book of its generation1 and one of the most bewildering1 was actually anticipated by a stripling1 and its final rank assigned with singular fairness and precision4 ,scarcely even in the style is there a trace of immaturity4444 ,the essay on the ,races of the ,danube forcibly suggests the idea that ,mr4 ,fiske has qualities of mind1 almost unused hitherto1 which would make him an exceptionally valuable writer of history4--,atlantic ,monthly4 ,the article on the ,races of the ,danube shows that ,mr4 ,fiske has a special talent for history4--,nation 7,new ,york74 99 99 99 99 99 ,,myths ,,and ,,myth-,,makers3 ,old ,tales and ,superstitions interpreted by ,comparative ,mythology4 #abmo1 pp4 #bea1 #b4jj4 ,,contents3 ,the ,origins of ,folk-,lore2 ,the ,descent of ,fire2 ,werewolves and ,swan-,maidens2 ,light and ,darkness2 ,myths of the ,barbaric ,world2 ,juventus ,mundi2 ,the ,primeval ,ghost-,world4 ,mr4 ,fiske has given us a book which is at once sensible and attractive1 on a subject about which much is written that is crotchety or tedious4--,w4 ,r4 ,s4 ,,ralston1 in ,athenum 7,london74 ,this volume is not a text-book of scientific mythology4 ,it contains seven essays crowded with quotations and examples1 in the abundant use of which the writer's learning is not more conspicuous than his literary skill4 ,not everybody can shape and control such wealth of material4--,christian ,union 7,new ,york74 ,he has1 as we must admit1 one qualification for attaining his object1 in being completely master of his subject1 and in knowing also how to treat it in an attractive manner4--,,felix ,,liebrecht1 in ,academy 7,london74 ,it is extremely interesting for its happy combination of psychologic analysis with a study of the primitive beliefs of mankind4444 ,a perusal of this thorough work cannot be too strongly recommended to all who are interested in comparative mythology4--,revue ,critique 7,paris74 ,mr4 ,fiske is a master of perspicuous explanation4--,world 7,new ,york74 ,its weight of sense and its lucidity will extend ,mr4 ,fiske's reputation as one of the clearest-minded1 most conscientiously laborious and well-trained students in this country4--,nation 7,new ,york74 ,with the capacity for profound research and the power of critical consideration1 he has a singular grace of style1 and an art of clear and simple statement1 which will not let the most indifferent refuse knowledge of the topics treated4 ,in such a field as the discussion of old fables and superstitions affords1 we have not only to admire ,mr4 ,fiske for the charm of his manner1 but for the justice and honesty of his method4--,atlantic ,monthly4 ,it is both an amusing and instructive book1 evincing large research1 and giving its results in a lucid and attractive style4--,e4 ,p4 ,,whipple4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,unseen ,,world1 ,,and ,,other ,,essays4 #abmo1 pp4 #cdi1 #b4jj4 ,,contents3 ,the ,unseen ,world2 ,the ,to-morrow of ,death2 ,the ,jesus of ,history2 ,the ,christ of ,dogma2 ,a ,word about ,miracles2 ,draper on ,science and ,religion2 ,nathan the ,wise2 ,historical ,difficulties2 ,the ,famine of #aggj in ,bengal2 ,spain and the ,netherlands2 ,longfellow's ,dante2 ,paine's ,st4 ,peter2 ,a ,philosophy of ,art2 ,athenian and ,american ,life4 ,we think every one will remark1 while examining this volume1 the variety of subjects treated2 and if anybody has formed an opinion that ,mr4 ,fiske is a man who cares for nothing but myths and philosophy1 he will find occasion to correct it4 ,many of these papers are critical reviews of important books widely different in their subjects2 but to each study the writer seems to have brought1 besides an excellent quality of discriminating judgment1 full and fresh special knowledge1 that enables him to supply much information on the subject1 whatever it may be1 that is not to be found in the volume he is noticing4 ,to the knowledge1 analytical power1 and faculty of clear statement1 that appear in all these papers1 ,mr4 ,fiske adds a just independence of thought that conciliates respectful consideration of his views1 even when they are most at variance with the commonly accepted ones4--,boston ,advertiser4 ,of all the criticism and discussion called forth both in this country and in ,england by that remarkable little book1 ,the ,unseen ,universe1 ,mr4 ,john ,fiske's ,unseen ,world is at once the most profound1 the most comprehensive1 and the most lucid4444 ,the mere statement of a thought in his perspicuous and translucent language gives it1 in most cases1 a new meaning and an added force4--,appletons' ,journal4 ,they are all striking compositions1 and deserving of a place in the fore rank of this kind of literature4 ,it is not often that more robust and healthy reading can be found between the covers of a single volume4--,san ,francisco ,bulletin4 ,the vigor1 the earnestness1 the honesty1 and the freedom from cant and subtlety in his writing are exceedingly refreshing4 ,he is a scholar1 a critic1 and a thinker of the first order4--,christian ,register4 ,mr4 ,fiske has won for himself a foremost place among ,american writers on physical science2 and the present volume of essays bears testimony not only to his ability as a physicist1 but to his versatility of mind and critical powers as well4--,canadian ,monthly4 ,he is one of our foremost religious thinkers4--,times 7,new ,york74 ,the line of argument is so plain that all can follow it1 and the style is wondrously charming4--,index 7,boston74 ,mr4 ,john ,fiske is a devoted student of ,dante4 ,the review of ,mr4 ,longfellow's work is an admirable essay upon translating ,dante1--an essay showing a very fine critical feeling and thorough knowledge of the subject4--,transcript 7,boston74 ,he is a scholar profoundly versed in ancient and modern lore1 a thinker familiar with all shades of thought1 an observer who studies men as well as books1 and withal a writer of the purest and most graphic ,english4--,inter-,ocean 7,chicago74 ,he finely exposes the materialistic character of the book called the ,unseen ,universe1 which has been so highly extolled by the ,southern ,cross and other papers4--,advertiser 7,maryborough1 ,australia74 ,the book has a unity and charm in the clearness of the thought and the beauty of such a style as was perhaps never before brought to the illustration of the topics with which ,mr4 ,fiske habitually deals4 ,there is something better still in the admirable spirit of his writing2 it is of all writing of its sort1 probably1 the most humane4444 ,he has already achieved a place as wholly his own as it is eminent4--,atlantic ,monthly4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,excursions ,,of ,,an ,,evolutionist4 #abmo1 pp4 #cgi1 #b4jj4 ,,contents3 ,europe before the ,arrival of ,man2 ,the ,arrival of ,man in ,europe2 ,our ,aryan ,forefathers2 ,what we learn from ,old ,aryan ,words2 ,was there a ,primeval ,mother-,tongue8 ,sociology and ,hero-,worship2 ,heroes of ,industry2 ,the ,causes of ,persecution2 ,the ,origins of ,protestantism2 ,the ,true ,lesson of ,protestantism2 ,evolution and ,religion2 ,the ,meaning of ,infancy2 ,a ,universe of ,mind-,stuff2 ,in ,memoriam3 ,charles ,darwin4 ,among our thoughtful essayists there are none more brilliant than ,mr4 ,john ,fiske4 ,his pure style suits his clear thought4 ,he does not write unless he has something to say2 and when he does write he shows not only that he has thoroughly acquainted himself with the subject1 but that he has to a rare degree the art of so massing his matter as to bring out the true value of the leading points in artistic relief4 ,it is this perspective which makes his work such agreeable reading even on abstruse subjects1 and has enabled him to play the same part in popularizing ,spencer in this country that ,littr performed for ,comte in ,france1 and ,dumont for ,bentham in ,england4 ,the same qualities appear to good advantage in his new volume1 which contains his later essays on his favorite subject of evolution4444 ,they are well worth reperusal4--,the ,nation 7,new ,york74 ,these essays are all full of thought and worthy of preservation1 while several of them are entitled to rank among the very best essays of ,american writers4 ,for depth of thought1 scholarship1 literary taste1 critical ability1 and the power of clear and vigorous exposition combined1 ,mr4 ,fiske has no equal in this country and but few equals among ,european writers4 ,he does not write on a subject until he has acquainted himself with it2 and then he presents his thought1 which often has the merit of originality1 with a lucidness and attractiveness of style which make it easy to follow him in his treatment of even difficult topics4 ,it is a pleasure to turn from our merely literary writers to the essays of ,mr4 ,fiske1 whose clear thought1 discriminating judgment1 and philosophic spirit1 together with his fine taste and perspicuity of style1 make his writings both instructive and entertaining4--,index 7,boston74 ,the vividness and directness of the style is second only to the bracing and stimulating quality of the matter4 ,this book comes nearer than anything we now think of among ,american publications to successfully popularizing the results of science without debilitating or misinterpreting the same4 ,the first papers of the book particularly emulate the clearness of ,huxley4444 ,it compels assent to the dreaded new way of looking at things1 but in such a way that when the assent is given the dread is all gone4 ,it is a good book for the busy preacher on account of its wealth of facts1 so arranged as to reveal the thought that lies back of each fact4 ,each conclusion suggests a lesson4--,unity 7,chicago74 ,mr4 ,fiske1 under the above title1 makes his excursions through the realms of science1 and evolves evolution in a most admirable manner--physical and psychical--by the testimony of the rocks1 and with wonderful wisdom explains the origin of matter and man so truthfully possible that it is accepted as exceedingly probable1 if not certain1 by the thoughtful reader4 ,it is fascinating to read his proofs and speculations upon a subject grown so interesting1 and the reader is disposed to apply the same term of praise upon his work as he bestowed upon ,clifford3 ,such scientific exposition as this is as beautiful as poetry4--,hartford ,post4 ,mr4 ,fiske is the master of an extremely lucid and attractive literary style1 and brings to all questions which he discusses the fruits of a very industrious reading and examination of authorities4444 ,whether one agrees with him or not one cannot fail to receive much instruction and definite intellectual impulse from the reading of this volume4444 ,while heartily dissenting from many of the views advanced in this book1 we commend it to all students who care for the honest judgment of an honest man4--,christian ,union4 ,,the ,,destiny ,,of ,,man1 viewed in the ,light of his ,origin4 #afmo1 pp4 #aba1 #a4jj4 ,,contents3 ,man's ,place in ,nature as affected by the ,copernican ,theory2 ,as affected by ,darwinism2 ,on the ,earth there will never be a ,higher ,creature than ,man2 ,the ,origin of ,infancy2 ,the ,dawning of ,consciousness2 ,lengthening of ,infancy and ,concomitant ,increase of ,brain ,surface2 ,change in the ,direction of the ,working of ,natural ,selection2 ,growing ,predominance of the ,psychical ,life2 ,the ,origins of ,society and ,morality2 ,improvableness of ,man2 ,universal ,warfare of ,primeval ,men2 ,first checked by the ,beginnings of ,industrial ,civilization2 ,methods of ,political ,development and ,elimination of ,warfare2 ,end of the ,working of ,natural ,selection upon ,man2 ,throwing off the ,brute-,inheritance2 ,the ,message of ,christianity2 ,the ,question as to a ,future ,life4 ,mr4 ,fiske has long held rank as one of the most profound and exact of ,american thinkers1 and his little monograph will serve to extend that deserved fame among a class of readers who are not ordinarily interested in the literature of science4 ,mr4 ,fiske's book is1 in a word1 a plea for faith in the immortality of man1 based on the doctrine of evolution4 ,with a superb command of all the knowledge bearing upon the philosophy of ,darwinism1 to which he has himself been a noteworthy contributor1 ,mr4 ,fiske sums up in eloquent periods the process of evolutionary creation from the origin of infancy to the beginnings of industrial and political development which have made human society what it is to-day2 and then1 looking into the future1 he foretells how natural selection1 working on the lines already marked out1 shall attain its perfect work4 ,the whole argument1 or rather exposition1 is a marvel of condensation4--,boston ,traveller4 ,mr4 ,fiske has given us in his ,destiny of ,man a most attractive condensation of his views as expressed in his various other works4 ,one is charmed by the directness and clearness of his style1 his simple and pure ,english1 and his evident knowledge of his subject4444 ,of one thing we may be sure1 that none are leading us more surely or rapidly to the full truth than men like the author of this little book1 who reverently study the works of ,god for the lessons which he would teach his children4--,christian ,union 7,new ,york74 ,professor ,fiske is always interesting4 ,his exposition1 step by step1 of the doctrine of evolution1 is admirably adapted for those prejudiced against it to read--simple1 pleasant1 and clear1 and expressly designed to disarm hostility by showing that it is by no means absolutely incompatible with accepted religious beliefs--at least1 with their essential qualities4--,overland ,monthly 7,san ,francisco74 ,it is a remarkable contribution to the literature of religious thought4444 ,it will prove that evolution is at least not irreverent4444 ,it is packed full of learning and suggestion1 in a style at once simple and beautiful1 and is worth a dozen volumes of ordinary sermons4--,philadelphia ,press4 ,this essay will and should attract wide attention1 founded as it is upon modern science and marking the way in an advanced path in religio-scientific inquiry4 ,mr4 ,fiske is acknowledged one of the first of scientific thinkers1 and his conclusions have more than the usual weight4--,albany ,journal4 ,his little volume will be highly prized by those who enjoy seeing one of the most profound themes which can occupy the attention treated with eloquence and strength1 with scientific insight and imaginative vigor4--,buffalo ,commercial ,advertiser4 ,the reverent spirit of the book1 the wide range of illustrations1 the remarkable lucidity of thought and style1 and the noble eloquence that characterizes it1 render this book one of striking value and interest4--,salem ,gazette4 ,,the ,,idea ,,of ,,god ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,modern ,,knowledge4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 ,this essay is a sequel to ,the ,destiny of ,man4 ,its object is to show that the indications of ,science and ,philosophy are theistic1 not atheistic2 that while the idea of ,god has been greatly modified by modern knowledge1 it has not been lost or belittled1 but magnified and illuminated4 ,the essay is prefaced by a long ,introduction of remarkable interest1 and the whole book is full of significance and charm for all thoughtful minds4 ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,co41 ,,publishers1 ,,boston4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes ,variations in spelling and punctuation are as in the original1 except in cases of obvious typographical error4 ,each chapter of the book begins and most end with a decorative panel4 ,these have not been referenced in this text4 ,italics are represented thus italic bold thus bold and ,greek thus greek4