2 1 6 Contemporary Evolution. 



logical course, and mutually refuting each other, find an 

 ultimate synthesis in Christianity, as we have before found 

 them to do in nature. Christianity affirms the truth 

 latent in atheism, namely, that God, as He is, is un- 

 imaginable and inscrutable by us ; in other words, no such 

 God as we can imagine exists. It also affirms the truth 

 in pantheism, that God acts in every action of every 

 created thing, and that in Him we live and move and are. 

 Finally, it also asserts the truth of deism, but by its other 

 assertions escapes the objections to which deism by itself 

 is liable from opposing systems. Similarly, Christianity 

 also effects a synthesis between theism and the worship 

 of humanity, and that by the path not of destruction, but 

 through the nobler conception of "taking the manhood 

 into God." 



It may be well to conclude this chapter by a retrospect. 

 Our investigations concerning social, political, scientific, 

 and' philosophic evolution have but led us to what we 

 might have a priori anticipated the conclusion that the 

 highest and most intellectual power is that which must 

 ultimately dominate the inferior forces. Neither political 

 nor scientific developments can avail against the necessary 

 consequences of philosophical evolution. No mistake can 

 be greater than that of supposing that philosophy is but 

 a mental luxury for the few. An implicit, unconscious 

 philosophy possesses the mind and influences the conduct 

 of every peasant. Metaphysical doctrines, sooner or later, 



