THE THREE STAGES OF KXOWLEDGE. 



123 



pher, dont le caractere est 

 essentiellement different et 

 meme radicalement oppose&quot; : 

 d abord la methode theolo- 

 gique, ensuite la methode 

 metaphysique, et enfia la 

 methode positive.&quot; p. 3. 



&quot; Le systeme theologique 

 cst parvenu a la plus haute 

 perfection dont il soit sus 

 ceptible, quand il a substi- 

 tue 1 action providentielle 

 d un etre unique au jeu 

 varie des nombreuses divi- 

 nites independantes qui a- 

 vaient ete imaginees primi- 

 tivemcnt. Do meme, le 

 dernier terme du systeme 

 metaphysique cousiste a 

 concevoir, au lieu dcs dif- 

 ferentes entitesparticulieres, 



gration of causal agencies, originally 

 thought of as multitudinous and 

 local, but finally believed to be one 

 and universal, is a process which in 

 volves the passing through all inter 

 mediate steps between these extremes; 

 and any appearance of stages can be 

 but superficial. Supposed concrete 

 and individual causal agencies, co 

 alesce in the mind as fast as groups 

 of phenomena are assimilated, or seen 

 to be similarly caused. Along with 

 their coalescence, comes a greater ex 

 tension of their individualities, and 

 a concomitant loss of distinctness in 

 their individualities. Gradually, by 

 continuance of such coalescences, 

 causal agencies become, in thought, 

 diffused and indefinite. And even 

 tually, without any change in the 

 nature of the process, there is reached 

 the consciousness of a universal causal 

 agency, which cannot be conceived. 



As the progress of thought is one, 

 so is the end one. There are not 

 three possible terminal conceptions ; 

 but only a single terminal conception. 

 When the theological idea of the 

 providential action of one being, is 

 developed to its ultimate form, by the 

 absorption of all independent second 

 ary agencies, it becomes the conception 

 of a being immanent in all pheno 

 mena ; and the reduction of it to this 

 state, implies the fading-away, in 

 thought, of all those anthropomorphic 

 attributes by which the aboriginal 



* A clear illustration of this process, is furnished by the recent mental inte 

 gration of Heat, Light, Electricity, etc., as modes of molecular motion. If we 

 go a step back, we see that the modern conception of Electricity, resulted from 

 the integration in consciousness, of the two forms of it evolved in the galvanic 

 battery and in the electric-machine. And going back to a still earlier stage, we 

 sec how the conception of statical electricity, arose by the coalescence in thought, 

 of the previously-separate forces manifested in rubbed amber, in rubbed glass, and 

 in lightning. With such illustrations before him, no one can, I think, doubt 

 that the process has been the same from the beginning. 



