RELIGION AND SCIENCE 265 



an idea, ^ and in consequence capable of influencing 

 that mind, and through it the whole course of events. 

 It is not grasped as a mere sum of details, but, how- 

 ever vaguely and imperfectly, as a single idea, unitary 

 in spite of its complexity. Nor is it the universe in 

 itself, but only so far as it has been thus grasped by 

 mind. There exists no other meaning of the term 

 which, on analysis, is found to convey anything, or 

 at least anything scientific or comprehensible, to us. 

 We may reason that there is an Absolute God behind 

 the universe and our idea of it. But we have no 

 proof of this statement, and such an Absolute God is, 

 as Spencer pointed out, an Unknowable, and accord- 

 ingly no concern of ours. That part and these as- 

 pects of the universe which have been grasped by us 

 may prove to contain the key to many of our diffi- 

 culties; meanwhile we can only be humble and admit 

 that our idea of God, even in this restricted sense, is 

 still extremely incomplete: and in this sense there 

 is a God far greater than our present idea and knowl- 

 edge of God, only waiting to be discovered. 



That which it is essential to establish is our way of 

 looking at the problem. The universe does come into 



« It is interesting to note that a scientific treatment of the 

 problem may force an author almost unwittingly to similar con- 

 clusions. For instance, in Jevons' book ('10) the term "God" 

 hardly occurs at all, whereas the phrase "the idea of God" is to 

 be found on nearly every page. If, as we are urging, God as 

 efficient agent in the world and as reality in contact with human 

 beings is outer world organized as idea, the reason for such peri- 

 phrasis at once appears. 



