RELIGION AND SCIENCE 265 



It is a simple fact that the conception which man 

 has of the universe and its relation to himself exercises 

 important effects upon his life. A name therefore 

 is needed for this anthropological phenomenon. God 

 is the usual name applied, and we shall retain it in 

 default of another, premissing that the word, like 

 many similar general terms — * love,' or * life,' or 

 * beauty,' say — can be defined and applied in many 

 ways, and that we apply it here in a particular and 

 perhaps somewhat novel sense. 



God in this sense is the universe, not as such, but 

 so for as grasped as a whole by a mind, embodied in 

 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, however 

 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 



* It is interesting to note that a scientitic treatment of the 

 problem may force an author almost unwittingly to similar con- 

 clusions. For instance, in Jevons' book ('lo), 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 /J outer world organized as idea, the reason for such peri- 

 phrasis at once appears. 



