The interpretation of life, in which is shown the relation of modern culture to Christian science

Front matter

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Preface

THERE are doubtless many intelligent men, in the professional and business worlds, who are deeply interested in the things of the mind, and who would gladly familiarize themselves with the spiritual treasures of the best philosophical thought, were not such treasures so obscurely hidden in the depths of technical phraseology and recondite utterance as to render them practically non-existent for the general reader.

This volume attempts the ambitious and hazardous task of gathering up the best that has been thought and said by the noblest minds, in the past or present, and of putting it forth in such terms and within such limits as will render it appreciable to the popular intelligence.

The attempt, however, aims at more than a mere summation of ideas, or an eclectic, philosophical anthology, for there is presented, as the title of the volume indicates, an interpretation of ‘life; but an interpretation made in the light of the highest and best thoughts of man. Everyone, in his way and measure, necessarily interprets life; for the mere fact of self-conscious intelligence involves some rational account of things. That is, the life of man, as a rational being, is always in itself an interpretation of some kind, no matter how humble and inadequate. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to familiarize ourselves, so far as possible, with the noblest thoughts, feelings, and purposes of those men who have lived most and best, or who have more largely, broadly, and deeply comprehended within themselves the meaning of life.

IT.

The endeavor here will be made to deal with the entire subject in the spirit of rational freedom and detachment from all special interests, for the sake of those interests; and the ultimate appeal will always be carried up to that reason alone which dwells in

ix ae PREFACE.

every man, as the supreme court of final decision. Special interests obscure thought and render man a mere advocate for some fixed idea; reason frees man and enables him to behold the Idea itself in its fullness.

By reason, however, is not meant reasoning, or discursive logic which may be employed, at any given time, only as a means for the advocacy of the accepted or acquired prejudice. By reason, is meant the entire man, in his threefold capacity of thought, feeling, and will; reason, therefore, taken so comprehensively as to overcome all rational tribalism and immaturity by rational totality and maturity.

That is, if ‘man, as an intelligent being, is to interpret life in anything like an adequate way, he is to do so not merely as a scientist, with his exclusive theoretical or intellectual interests; or as an artist, with his exclusive esthetical or practical interests; or as a saint, with his exclusive ethical or religious interests; but he is to interpret life in the fofality of his reason as scientist and artist and saint.

Nor must he pause, in pursuing any one of these three, great, rational interests, at any stage of immaturity. As scientist, he necessarily rises above common-sense by rationalizing it under the forms of logic; but then he must push on to philosophy, in order to view all things in the light of rational intuition.

As an artist, his search for the beautiful lifts him above the mere pleasures, derived from sense, to their more subtle, rationalized refinements in emotion; but then he must pass beyond emotion, in order to seek those felicities which lie in pure happiness alone.

As a saint, he perforce renounces the crude impulses of egoism, as the motives of will, for the lofty and sacred demands of the moral law; but then he must finally rise above law into the realms of universal love where at last his ethical nature comes to full expression.

And it is only when reason thus attains its maturity, in the regions of spiritual Truth, spiritual Beauty, and spiritual Goodness, that it also attains its totality in the unity of thought and will, as the Beauty of Truth, manifesting Goodness.

PREFACE. xi or:

If an attempt to attain such a rational maturity and totality is regarded as ambitious and hazardous, it must not be supposed to lie altogether beyond the reach of any man who is serious enough to lift himself above absorption in worldly gain, and earnestly pursue after the unsearchable riches of the mind. For in every man there lie the potencies and possibilities of that Supreme Reason which inhabits and imbues the Universe, with the absolute Unity of its harmonious order (Beauty), the infinite omnipresence of its Thought (Truth), and the eternal omnipotence of its Will (Goodness). Even the little child, until perverted by human conventions, can with direct simplicity behold the beauty of its life secure in the all-enfolding Truth and Goodness of God; for to unspoiled childhood, everything is beautiful and true and good.

It is not left to learning or worldly wisdom to fathom the deep mysteries of the Cosmic Mind; for learning often obfuscates, by the cloud of its traditional prejudices, and worldly wisdom more often wholly darkens, by its egoistic sophistications, the mind and heart. It is the simple mind and the upright heart, in the learned as well as in the unlearned, that is ever open to the incoming of the light and warmth of Truth and Goodness that shines down from God upon the life of man.

IV.

As a clue to the better understanding of this volume, it may be well to anticipate, in a word, its general course. To begin with, the universe presents itself to intelligence as a unity of things, under the dominance of rational law, and unfolding toward some great end. ‘The first and most striking object of observation is the outer, natural world-order in its evolution, through inorganic forms, until life appears; and then, through organic forms, until man appears. And here we rise above the natural to the new and higher supra-natural or rational world-order; for man, in his self-conscious rationality, asserts himself as an other in the Cosmos, with his own interests which he freely pursues toward his own ends. (Book I.)

There thus begins the evolution of the rational world-order. As xii PREFACE.

a theoretical being, man is a scientist and comes to know the object before him; and, as an esthetico-practical being, he is an artist seeking to appreciate and appropriate the values of the object which he has come to know. But, as others besides himself have the same knowledge and make the same claims upon the object and its values, he must, as an ethical being, establish some moral law, according to which he may share those values with his fellow men.

Hence, as a scientist, artist, and saint, he comes to discover that, in order to attain freedom and self-realization, his reason must unfold toward a complete, harmonious unity with the Cosmic Life, in thinking the Cosmic Thought and willing the Cosmic Will. (Book II.)

In this rational evolution, there is clearly revealed the threefold nature of reason in its unity of thought, feeling, and will. But, unfortunately in actual experience, the interests of science, art, and ethics fall into seemingly inextricable confusion and conflict. Fortunately, however, it is a confusion and conflict which proves to be due to no radical defect in reason itself, but to the self-imposed limitations of rational tribalism and rational immaturity.

Let reason but unfold to its totality and maturity, and it will be found that the object, made known by science, offers to art all its possible values, which ethics, with its outstreaming will of - good, ever seeks to confer upon others. (Book III.)

It then devolves upon the rational subject, with his threefold capacity for science, art, and ethics, to make a corresponding, threefold interpretation of the object before him. ‘The weariness of the discussion, as a preliminary necessity, concerning the entire process of knowing and its validity, the reader is asked patiently to endure; for it is by means of such a discussion alone that it is possible to reach the clearly rational and final outcome which presents the object, in its entirety, as the Absolute Beauty (the Cosmic Unity) of Infinite Truth (the Cosmic Thought), manifesting Eternal Goodness (the Cosmic Will).

It is in the unfolding, rational process of reaching this outcome that man comes to know, through nature, his true relation to the

PREFACE. xiii

World, in its reality; through history, his right relation to Man, in his reality; and through both nature and history, his absolute relation to God, the Ultimate Ground of Reality. And it is his total relation to Reality that constitutes ‘the entire meaning of religion. (Book IV.)

But in man’s rational evolution toward the Beauty of Truth and | Goodness, he is disturbed by the mystery of suffering which not only needs to be explained but escaped. And he finds the explanation of the mystery to be that suffering is a divine pedagogy of pain which, rebuking error and sin, as departures from the Cosmic Thought and the Cosmic Will, serves, on the one hand, as a warning against error and sin, and, on the other hand, as a call to the attainment of ‘Truth and Goodness.

Although error and sin—subjective, human mistakes in thought and perversities of will—are, as departures from the Cosmic Thought and Will, necessarily unreal, they are nevertheless actual in man’s experience, and remain actual until their illusions are exposed and destroyed in the light of Reality. But unreal as error and sin may be, they subserve the interests of Truth and Goodness; for the pedagogy of pain, which they necessarily involve, arouses and develops man, in his progressive advance toward his final goal.

Man’s rational evolution in the world of experience is a flight and areturn. Like the prodigal, he leaves the naive happiness of. his Father’s house, in his youth, to plunge headlong, with all the confident assertion of his self-conceit and self-will, into the struggles of his manhood. But instead of finding the happiness he sought, he finds only hunger and sorrow; until, aroused to himself by the pedagogy of pain, he returns in humility and contrition to his Father’s house; but returns developed, ennobled, and enriched by the wandering experiences of life. (Book V.)

Then it is he comes to know that the only Reality is the Beauty _ of Infinite Truth, manifesting Eternal Goodness; and that, therefore, his supreme vocation, in his earthly existence, is, in overcoming the subjective, discordant illusions of error and sin, to realize himself as a son of God, who reflects in himself the Life,

Xiv PREFACE.

the Truth, and the Love of God. And in this self-realization, there is revealed to him that ultimate Science of Being which, as the final attainment of the Christian consciousness, enables him to understand, not only the rational meaning of his flight, but also the divine way of his return to Reality. (Book VI.)

How imperfectly the whole plan has been carried out, and how inadequate are the forms of expression, no one can be more painfully aware than the author himself. And yet the substance of the thought is urged upon every intelligent man, as not unworthy of his most serious attention. If any possible academic reader should complain that he finds nothing new, or nothing which is not better said elsewhere, though unacknowledged here, let his judgment be softened by the consideration that originality is neither a claim nor an aim in the present endeavor; and that the sources of information and inspiration are too general and varied for due acknowledgment within reasonable limits.

On the other hand, it would be the merest affectation to depreciate an interpretation of life which is the fruit of more than twenty years of reading, observation, and thought; and which, in its attempt to harmonize all the interests of reason, through intuition within the rational self, is new.

This volume has been written with the single aim of ascertaining, so far as possible, the objective Truth; and is sent forth with the confident hope that it will contribute, in some measure at least, to all those forces in the world that go to make men wiser, better, and happier. GERHARDT C. Mars.

New York City, June 1, 1908.

CONEENTS.

Chapter I. Introductory

Natural Law and the Eighteenth Century—Evolution and the Nineteenth Century—Law and Mechanism: Evolution and Organism—Evolution, an Implicit Idea, Becoming Explicit —An Ideal, Being Realized—Description and Explanation —Strife Between Religion and Science, Needless—Value of BR INCI BION roe ch) sith ks, Saue ech y ooiie Nw yaa I-9

Chapter II. Inorganic Evolution

A Scientific Titan and the Nebular Hypothesis—Rings and Satellites—Evidence of Law: Gravitation—Osmosis, Adhesion and Cohesion—Heat and Light—Electricity and Magnetism—Chemism—Natural Affinity and the Law of Valence—Success, Dashed with Disappointment—The Search for One Substance—The Relation of Identity: Matter is Motion—The Evolving Earth—The Crystal, a Rebel to the General Order—The Littleness and the Greatness of Man . 10-20

Chapter III. Organic Evolution

Entrance of Life, in the Cell—The Appearance of Self-asserted Individuality—Self-sacrifice, the Way of Progress: Organism, a Cummunity of Interests—Two Great Lines of Organic Development—Main Differences Between Plant and Animal —Significance of Self-motion and of Food—The Plant, the Purveyor of Food to the Animal—Freedom, Responsibility, and Progress—The Search for Food, a Means of Culture— Psychology Clearly Enters the Field—Development of the Neuro-muscular Tissues—The Paradox of Self-assertion and Submission—Opposition Develops Individuality—The Neural Advance—Protection Provided—The Invertebrate Exo-skeleton—The Vertebral Endo-skeleton—The Brain Safely Housed —The One and the Many—Function of the Neural Tissues— Consciousness of the Object—Self-consciousness and Man— All points Upward to Man—The Supra-natural or Rational —The Fallacy of Continuity—Subordination by Transcendence—The Fallacy of Generality—A Prevalent False Belief Corrected—Evolution of the Natural World-Order Defined. . 21-40 xv

Xvi CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Introductory

The Goal—The Self, One and Permanent—The Sub-conscious and Unconscious Self—The Abnormal Self—The Self Always a Subject—The Centrality of the Self—The Threefold Power in the Self.) 20:09 PAST el ha 6 SN AD Se gee ee

Chapter II. Evolution Of The Theoretical Reason

The Simplest Elements of Knowledge—Sense-impresses, the Percept, and the Concept—The Concept, an Object of Thought —The Natural History of the Concept—Beginnings in the Animal Mind—The Logic of Association—Instinct, a Dynamic, Typal Idea—Human Associational Logic—Laws of Association—The Cosmic Reason in All Things—The Accept —The Concept Emerges—The Power of the Concept—Naive Logic: Common-Sense—Logic of Reflection: Science—Rational Intuition or the Logic of Logic: Philosophy—Advance from Matter to Mind, from Nature to Spirit—Mind in but Above Nature—A Defeat that Promises Triumph—The Ideal not Found in the Actual—Revelation and the Fall of Man— The Power of the Ideal’in. the Concept...) <1) i, ae

Chapter III. Evolution Of The Asthetico- Practical Reason

Primary Devotion Must Be Given to the Truth—Huxley on the Joys of Science—Feeling the Truth—Every Known Object Has Aésthetic Value—Feeling Less Definable than Knowing —Knowledge and Opinion: Real and Unreal Knowledge— Pleasure and Pain, the Correlates of Truth and Error—The Mere Joy of Living—Health, a State of Truth—Disease, a State of Error—Feelings Correspond to the Nature of the Object Known—Sensation— Emotion— Moods, Emotions Proper, and Passions—Happiness—Remote Origin of the Aésthetic Reason—The Values of Self-consciousness—Art Rests upon Science—Feeling Follows Knowledge and Volition Follows Feeling—The Primacy of the Will—Will, a Self-conscious Volition to an End—lIdentity and Diversity—Development of Invention and Art—The Cosmic Idea Within Drives Us On—Nature, a Master-work of Art—The Moral Question Berg ie ia es SUR NR ga ne nA as ar

43-50

51-68

CONTENTS. XVii

Chapter IV. The Evolution Of The Ethical Reason

p ccesity and Advantage of Ethical Relations—The Germs of Ethics in Nature—Three Phases of Volitional Instinct— Relation of the Moral Will to Knowing—Sex, the Origin of Affection—The Affection of Altruism: Law—The Affection of Universalism: Love—Relation of the Moral Will to Feeling—The Anger of Love—Gotama’s Scientific Discovery —Jesus and Gotama—Ethics Comprehends Science and Art— The Egoistic Struggle—Value of the Struggle—A Stage

, Beyond Justice—Self-renunciation in Nature—Unselfish Love Among the Animals—The Family Expands into the Nation— —The Patriarchal Autocracy—The Sovereignty of Law and Justice—The New Principle of the Gospel for Human History —The Leaven at Work in Christian History—The Reformation Frees the Individual—The True State, a Government of Free People—A Higher Aim than the Freedom of Democracy— The Law of Justice and the Law of Love—Utilitarianism and Intuitionism—Signs of Moral Progress in History—

- History Reveals the Realization of the Impossible—Man’s Greatness and Meanness—The Individual Man Repeats the Historic Order—The Cosmic Will of Goodness, the Ground of -Progress—Summation and Outlook... .. ....... Q3-121

BOOK lI. THE THREEFOLD UNITY OF REASON.

Chapter I. The Aim Of Science, Art, And Ethics

Science, a Constant Reinterpretation—Scientific Narrowness— False Estimates of Beauty—The Subjective and Objective Side of Taste—The Moral Will Has a Real Object—The Subjective Self, Realized in the Objective, Universal Self— The Ideal in and Beyond Man—A Conflict within Reason. . 125-134

Chapter II. Conflict And Confusion

The Scientist’s Attitude toward Art and Ethics—The Attitude of the Artist toward Science and Ethics—The Saint’s Attitude toward Science and Art—The Conflict is Racial as well as Individual—Hebrew and Greek Theoretical Interests—-The Greek’s Want of Moral Earnestness—The Service to Us of Hebraism and Hellenism—The Conflict in Historical Epochs —Is the Conflict Inherent or Superficial? . . . ...... 135-145

Chapter III. The Reconciliation

Rational Tribalism—The Fallacy of Immaturity—Science Involves the Grounds of Art—Truth Rebukes Error—Science Involves Ethical Principles—Art Involves Science and Ethics: The Art of Food—The Art of Clothes—The Art of Shelter—

XVili CONTENTS.

PAGES The Fallacy of Tribalism in Art—The Fallacy of Immaturity and the Three Stages in Art— Wagner and the Three Stages—Shadows of Unreality—Realism and Idealism in Hellenic Art—Christian Ideals Enter into Art—Modern Realism Subservient to Idealism—Ethics Involved in Art— The Aim of Art and Ethics, One—Ethics Involves Science we and Art—Summary and Conclusion. ... . ils at eee 146-176

Book IV. The Threefold Interpretation Of Reason

I. INTERPRETATION OF THE THEORETICAL REASON.

Chapter I. The Unity Of Substance And Cause

The Threefold Object of Thought: Man, the World, and God— The High Destiny Before Man—Necessity of Knowing the Concept— The Morphology of the Concept—The Cosmic Organism—The Infinite, the Eternal, and the Perfect—The Formal Doctrine of Substance—The Eleatic Changeless One: Being—Attribute, Quality, Quantity, and Degree—Attribute and Quality—Inter-relation of the Senses—Quantity and Degree—The Heraclitic Changing Many: Becoming—The Logos and Natural Law—Cause Enters the Field—Aristotle on Cause—Change first Arouses Thought—All Forces Rest upon One Principle—Meaning of First Cause—Change Rests upon a Principle of Permanence—Nature Reveals Change in Permanence—Cause, a Purposive Idea—The All-inclusive Chain of Events—Unity of Substance and Cause—Inherence —Exclusion—Fallacy of Immaturity Abets the Fallacy of Tribalism—The Intelligible not Reducible to the Sensible— The Problem of Identity as Unity—Thrown Back upon the ULL CRN Gea he Ave Rue hey. ak teem wae ah, eta a mea at . 179-208

Chapter II. The Problem Of Knowing

Knowledge Must Be Coherent and Real—Coherent Knowledge May Be Apparent Only—How Real Knowledge Is Gained through the Subject—The Infinite and Eternal in Man— The Greatness of the Rational Subject—Real Points of Reference in the Rational Subject—Absolute Weight Weighs Nothing—The Aésthetic and Moral Absolute, Found in the Subject—Knowing, its Method and Validity—The Logic of Reasoning and the Logic of Reason—Momentous Issues— The Object, First Lost in the Subject, is then Reestablished by the Subject—From Descartes to Hegel—Descartes—In the Act of Knowing, I Am—The Test of Knowledge, Clearness and Distinctness—Locke—The Doctrine of Experience—

CONTENTS. xix

PaGeés

Hume—The Subject Again Discovered—Hume’s One-sided Consistency—Huxley’s Rational Tribalism and Immaturity— Huxley on Bacon’s Novum Organum—The only Conditions of a Valid Science are Idealistic—The Greatness and Neces- Bete ant Se Vor os Soe OME) Ue See Mae ey, 209-232

CHAPTER III. THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY z OF KANT

Sensibility and Thought, the Two Avenues of Knowledge— Divisions of the Critique—The Atsthetic: Space—Time— The Logic—Inter-action of Sensibility and Thought—The Analytic—Elements of the Analytic Found in the Judgment— Knowledge Begins with Synthetical Judgments—Possibility, a priori, of Snythetical Judgments—The Categories in the Understanding—Deduction of the Categories—The Three Ascending Phases of Knowledge—The Synthesis of Apprehension, of Imagination, and of Apperception—The Centrality of Apperception—What the Deduction Means— —Schematism of the Pure Understanding—The Intuition of Time Mediates Thought and Sense—The Possibility of Synthetical Judgments, a priori—Highest Principle of the Analytical Judgment—Highest Principle of the Synthetical Judgment—The Principles of the Analytic—The Kantian Nescience—The Dialectic, a Critique of Illusion—Reason Compelled to Think but Unable to Know Reality—The Ideas of Pure Reason as Regulative—Belief in Reality: Religion— The Kantian Ethical Argument—Strength and Weakness of the Kantian Nescience—Three Great Indisputable Results— Peetuiy Of Knowing Reality. c. . ies es sieavinn «222-205

Chapter IV. The Logic Of Reason Is The Logic Of Reality: Hegel

Where Kant Leaves Us—The Humiliation of Science—The Protest of Reason—Hegel Culminates an Epoch—Fichte and Schelling Transitional—Fichte’s Subjective Idealism—Schelling’s Philosophy of Identity—How Hegel Profits by the Past— The Antagonism of Subject and Object: The Unity of Reason—A Solution Demanded and therefore Possible—The Rational Mechanism of Kant Becomes with Hegel a Living Organism—Affirmation, Negation, and Absolute Negation— Meaning of Negation—Negation is Overcome by Absolute Negation—Thought and Thing Unfold Together—A Misunderstanding Corrected—Being, Essence, and Notion—Three Ascending Stages of Culture—Being Passes into the Essence, and Essence into the Notion—Kant Pauses at the Objectivity of the Notion—The Content of the Notion: Substance and Cause—The Idea, as the Final Cause or End—The Actual xx CONTENTS.

: PaGEs is Real when Related to the Idea—Being and Essence are Saved in the Notion—Only the Idea and Its Manifestations Are Real—The Logic of Reason im Man but of God—Immanence and Transcendence—Significance of the Hegelian Logic— The Hegelian Philosophy of Evolution—The Limits of Hegel’s _

Work oe 80a! ee ane ee enn ie ce 262-290

Chapter V. The Final Deduction Of The Categories, Through Rational Intuition

The Self-conscious Subject in the Beginning—Unity of Subject Makes Possible Synthesis of Object—An Original, Underived Datum Needed for the Deduction of the Categories—The Subject Emerges in Knowing Its Object—Nature of the Rational Power in Apperception—Rational Intuition Makes Apperception and hence Knowledge Possible—Rational Intuition Makes Logic Possible—The Faculty of Judgment Demands ‘“‘Mother-Wit”—Unintelligent Learning—Kant’s Nescience and Fichte’s Subjectivism—Intuition Guarantees the Object—Emergence of the Categories: Relation—Substance, Cause, and Unity—The Rational Subject, as a Substantial Causal Unity—The Function of Feeling—Substance, Cause, and Unity Based upon Knowing, Willing, and Feeling— Derived Categories—Principles of Existence, Excluded Middle, and Sufficient Reason—The Absolute and the Relative— Meaning of Reality—Unconditioned Reality, the Absolute— Conditioned Reality, the Relative—The Real and the Unreal —The Phenomenal and the Contingent—Pure Illusion— Necessary Distinctions—Not a Complete Table of Categories —Kant Limits: Intuition ‘to Sense.* 90, 9 291-314

Chapter VI. Perception, Logic, And Intu- Ition, Or Sense, Understanding, And Reason

The Work of Sense Distinguished from that of Logic—How the Senses Deceive Us—The Work of Logic—The Three Stages of Logic—Analysis and Synthesis—Knowledge Begins with a Synthesis of Sense—Analysis Sets In—Synthesis Again— . Synthesis and Analysis Illustrated—A Natural but Unjustified Confusion—Intuition Enforces Its Demands—The Categories, as Intuitions, Guide Logic— Kant’s Regulative Ideas of Reason, only Subjective—The Integrity of Intuition is Final —Intuition Gives Certainty to All Knowledge—Inadequate Knowledge Does not Mean no Knowledge—The Comprehensive Spirit of Philosophy—Empiricism and Idealism—Coexistence and Inter-relation of Sense, Logic, and Intuition—

CONTENTS. xxi

PAGES Necessity of Knowing Phenomena as They Are—Universal Acknowledgment of Sense, Logic, and Intuition—Leibnitz’s Doctrine of Progressive Knowledge—Spinoza’s Three Stages of Knowledge—Balzac’s Instinctive, Abstractive, and Specialist . 315-341

Chapter VII. Sense, Logic, And Intuition, Interpret The Object

The Perception of Sense—Objective Antecedents to All Perception—Our Objective World Made up of Percepts—Origin of Percepts—Can Mind and Matter Interact?—Mind, the Ground of the Sensible World—Mr. Spencer’s Mistake—The Meaning of the Logical Interpretation—Logic in the Objective Mind—Homage to Modern Science—Reason Calls to Reason—Intuition Distinguishes the Phenomenal and Real— Limitations of Sense and Logic—The Value of Sense and Logic—Leibnitz and Kant on the Phenomenal and Real—A Comparison with Plato and Aristotle—Intuition Distinguishes Between Conditioned and Absolute Reality—lIntuition Sees the Knowing Subject as Reality—Interpretation of the Categorical Intuitions— Substance — Cause —Inseparability of Substance and Cause—Unity—Function of Sense and Logic —Evolution Exists in the Unfolding Human Consciousness— In What Sense Man is Infinite and Eternal—The Cosmic Trinity—The Phenomenal Transformed into the Real. . . . 342-365

Chapter VIII. Nature Of Intuitive Knowl- Edge And The Ontological Argument

A General Confusion between Perception and Intuition—Strife _ between Science and Religion, Based upon Confusion—Scientific Revelations in Religion—The Bible Suffers in the Hands of its Friends—The Bible in its Substance and in its Form— A Question of Method and not of Cause—Error of Describing Reality in Terms of Phenomona—A Natural Curiosity to See How Reality Looks—Truth in Sensuous Symbolism—Swedenborg—The Doctrine of Correspondences—Visions of the Spiritual World—The Bible Written, According to Correspondences—The Spiritual Massage—The Ritualistic, the Dogmatic, and the Spiritual Church—The Divine Unity, as Wisdom, Love, and Power—The Law of Spiritual Progress— Relation of the Will and Understanding—Origin of Evil in Human Error and Sin—Simplification of Religion—Predictions Fulfilled—Advantage in Making the Distinction— Fundamental Ground of the Theoretical Interpretation— Basal Character of the Ontological Argument—Rooted Deep in the Nature of Reason—Meaning of Mythology—Man, as OC TOONS He) mh wine crue Mi LAC) on Sonoma se 366-391 xxii CONTENTS.

II. INTERPRETATION OF THE A‘STHETICO-PRACTICAL REASON.

Chapter IX. The World, As A Rational Organism, Reveals Aesthetic Design

Does the Object Feel and Will toward Rational Ends?—The Real as well as the Phenomenal Object Concerned—Evidence of Feeling in Nature—Feeling in Animals—Evidence of Will in Nature—Omnipresent Energy—Evidence of Purpose

in Nature—Teleology of Evolution—Artistic Aspects of Nature—Subjective Pleasure, Correlate to Objective Beauty —The Human Artist Imitates the Divine Artist—Contrast in the Human and the Divine Artist—Plausible Fallacies in Objections to Purpose—The Divine Intelligence, not beyond Human Comprehension—Biology Reveals Purpose— Darwin and Design—Teleological Ideas Involved—Accidental Variation, Genesis of Species, and Evolutionary Advance—Method of Evolution Reveals Purpose—The Design of Natural Continued in Rational Evolution—The Divine Intelligence not below the Human—The Essence of the Teleological Argument—We Demand to Know the Nature of thes Motive: yews be Re a a

III. INTERPRETATION OF THE ETHICAL REASON.

Chapter X. The Ethical Problem Stated

The Goodness of God, the Deepest Concern of Man—The Cosmic Order Implies Goodness in the Cosmic Will—Optimistic and Pessimistic Views—Reason Protests against Evil, as Arising out of Error and Sin—The Natural Course of Procedure— Responsibility for Evil—Evils Arising in Human History—Is Nature Responsible for Man’s Error and Wrong-doing?— Man Rises Above Nature into a Rational Responsibility of His Own—The Dignity of Being Responsible for Error and Sin—Man Assumes the Responsibility of his Own Thought and Willi co-fenladintc Ciara. Otay Dee

Chapter XI. Ethical Meaning Of The Theo- Retical Interpretation

The Poetical View of the World is Ethical—The Poet Finds Love the Law of Nature—Wordsworth Finds Nature Wise and Good—With Age Comes Deeper Insight—Science Hushes the Voice of Poetry—The Poet’s Light Darkened by the Scientific World-View—The Poet Reinterprets and Vitalizes the Scientific World-View—The Prophet of Chelsea and his Significance—The Old View Gone but the New Profit and

392-409

410-418

CONTENTS. Xxiii

Rk PAGES Loss Philosophy Rejected—The Everlasting No—The Inner Voices of Truth and Duty Still Heard—Frees Himself from the Everlasting No—The Satanic School Still Lingers—The Center of Indifference—Wanderings and Temptations in the Wilderness—Self-renunciation Frees Him from Dream-Shadows of Unreality—Nature Transformed into the Father’s House— Man Transformed into a Brother: The Everlasting Yea—

_Every Age Demands a Reinterpretation of Life—Science, as a Fallen Angel and Tempter—The Prophet’s Guidance—Science Becomes an Angel of Light—Arbitrary Supernaturalism and Rational _ Immanence—Warning against Friends and Foes of Scientific World-View—Science Based on the Kinship of Reason in Man and in Nature—Unity of a Great Cosmic Order —Immanence and Transcendence—Permanent Order of Law —Immutable Law Seems to Rob the World of Ethical Meaning—Immutable Law Gives the World an Ethical Meaning— The Moral View of the World Comes Back, Transformed and Elevated—Freedom by Obedience—Wisdom in Denying all Personal Preference—False View of Prayer—The World, not Subject to Personal Interests—The Moral Integrity of Gravitation—Nature Answers All our Prayers by Answering None— Law of Progressive Evolution: ‘Transcendence by Subordination—Evolution Reveals an Ethical End—Though Wholly Theoretical, Science Reveals an Ethical Meaning in Nature— Doctrine of Cosmic Order Rests Back upon Ethical Intuition _—Science Reiterates the Utterances of the Ethical Reason. . 419-448

Chapter XII. Ethical Meaning Of The Aesthetico-practical Interpretation

The Goodness of Nature Confirms the Teachings of Jesus—How Goodness Expresses Itself—The Stubborn Persistence of Evil —Bearing of Relativity upon the Problem of Evil—Possibility of Error in the Process of Rational Development—The Unknown Explained by the Known—Nature, Known to be a Cosmic Order, Reveals Goodness—A Visitation of God—A Question between Personal Interests and Cosmic Order— Noxious Plants—Dangerous Animals—Evil, Projected and Objectified Error and Sin—Effect of Mental and Moral Qualities on the Environment—Beneficent System of Law Brings Evil to Light—The Real Ethical Interpretation, a Direct Intuition—The Ethical Interpretation of Israel—Compreneneive Character Of) Religion!) ) wigi(ieis eek ens ey. 449-465

Chapter XIII. Religion

The Rise of the Organic—Paradoxes—The Psychic Advance— Rational Man, the First True Individual—Man Seeks a Rational Reconciliation—The Threefold Reason Interprets the Object—Reason Responds to Reason—Progressive Advance in Knowledge of the Object—Atsthetic and Moral In-

Xxiv CONTENTS.

PAGES terpretations—Evolution, an Unfoldment of Man’s Consciousness in Reflecting God—The True Meaning of Religion— An Unfinished Task—All Things to Be: Brought under the Aspect of Reality, .;. sintentaoa ie Rae eases) ae 466-473

Chapter I. Introductory

Ideals of Racial Genius: the Hindu—The Hellenic Ideal of Truth and Beauty—The Hebrew Ideal of Righteousness and Life—Hebrew and Hellenic Ideals United in Christianity— Christian History, an Unfoldment of Truth and Goodness in Reason—Return to Earlier Ideals Impossible—Universality of the Rational Interpretation of Life—Salvation from the Evils of Error or of Sin—Salvation Must be from both Error and Sin— The Church Contains but Does not Fully Express the Ideals of Reason—Scientific as Well as Moral Saintship Demanded by Reason—Is Pain an Element of Reality >—Some Account Must Be "Given of Error and Sins. ) jac 477-490

Chapter II. Error And Sin Actual, Though Unreal

Sin as Unreal as Error—Views of Descartes on Error and Sin— Significance of Negative Terms—Two Extremes Avoided— Men Live in Different Actual Worlds—Progress is a Change of Mind—The Dynamic Power of Thought and Will—Error as Well as Truth is Dynamic—Destructive Power of False Ideas: the End of the World—In Spite of Man, Nature Still Beneficent—Modern Illusions Made Real: a Financial Panic —Nature Does not Share Our Unbelief and Fear—Wrong Volitions Make a Wrong World—‘“‘Realism” Actual but not Real—Comparison of Past and Present Goodness, Encouraging—All Moral Illusions not yet Banished—Irrational Economic Discrepancies in a Republic—The Old Political Feudalism—The New Economic Feudalism—Economic Feudalism Moves toward Cooperative Centralization—Order Emerges out of Disorder—Economic Freedom, the Demand of Historical Advance—The Imminent Question—Superstitious Illusions, the Result and Cause of False Conditions—Cooperation Produces Wealth—Men Seek the Power in Money—The Honors of a True Economic Rule—Reality, the Goal to be Attained—Man Has the Potency of Good Within. . . . . . 491-518

Chapter III. The Natural Tenacity Of Error And Sin

Error and Sin, not Regarded as Such—Persecution Well Meant— Error and Sin not Entirely False and Wrong—Sin Perverts a Good Impulse—Error and Sin Based upon Individual Rights—

CONTENTS. XxV

PAGES Error and Sin Are Communal—The Power of Communal Error: Witchcraft—Economic and Political War, Communal Sins—War Results from the Failure of Reason—Self-contradictions in War—The Status of War when Justified—The | Atmosphere of War in Germany and France—Wherein the © Greatness of Germany and France Lies—Adjustment to Environment for Self-preservation—The Great Leaders Rise above the Communal Level—Evolution Demands Self-progres-