CH. vi.] THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY. 505 



principle. The mythologic symbols have changed from age 

 to age. The constant element has been, on its intellectual 

 side the recognition of Deity, and on its emotional side the 

 yearning for closer union with Deity, or for a more complete 

 spiritual life. And the three foregoing chapters have con 

 clusively proved that this constant element, in both its 

 aspects, remains unchanged in that religion whose symbols 

 are shaped by science. 



In using the phrase &quot; Cosmic Theism,&quot; therefore, to denote 

 the religious phase of the philosophy based upon the Doc 

 trine of Evolution, I do not use it as descriptive of a new 

 form of religion before which Christianity is gradually to 

 disappear. I use it as descriptive of that less-anthropo 

 morphic phase of religious theory into which the present 

 more-anthropomorphic phase is likely to be slowly meta 

 morphosed. The conflict, as it presents itself to my mind, 

 is not between Christianity and any other embodiment of 

 religion or irreligion. The conflict is between science and 

 mythology, between Cosmism and Anthropomorphism. The 

 result is, not the destruction of religion, but the substitution 

 of a relatively adequate for a relatively inadequate set of 

 symbols. In the scientific philosopher there may be as 

 much of the real essence of Christianity as there was in 

 the cloistered monk who preceded him ; but he thinks in the 

 language of a man and not in the language of a child. 



The critical attitude of our philosophy with reference to 

 the beliefs and the institutions amid which we live, has now 

 been quite thoroughly defined both by what it is and by 

 what it is not. We may now, I think, safely affirm that 

 when Mr. Mivart accuses the Doctrine of Evolution of 

 tending toward the intellectual and moral degradation of 

 mankind and toward the genesis of atrocities worse than 

 those of the Parisian Commune, he clearly shows that he 

 has not thoroughly comprehended the implications of the 

 doctrine. The conception of evolution, which he adopts 



