XCV1 KANTS UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



Cosmogonies, though in a purified and much higher 

 form. Here again, then, we are forced to return not 

 merely to the Kant of the Critique of Pttre Reason, 

 but to the Kant of the Natural History and Theory 

 of the Heavens, which thus becomes to the contem- 

 porary scientist a sort of new ' Book of Genesis.' 

 And Religion, ' pure and undefiled,' on that basis, 

 thus far still stands scientifically secure. 



Nor does Kant leave us here with a mere abstract 

 Deistic conception, with what Carlyle calls 'an ab- 

 sentee God.' While he will not allow the finite to 

 be confused with the Infinite, nor to be negatively 

 identified with it, nor to be reduced to a mere false 

 abstraction, he yet holds that ' the field of the revela- 

 tion of the Divine attributes is as infinite as these 

 attributes themselves.' ' Creation is not the work of 

 a -moment.' 'The Deity is equally present every- 

 where in the infinitude of space ; He is found equally 

 near wherever there are natures that are capable of 

 soaring above the dependence of the creatures to 

 communion with Him as the supreme Being. The 

 whole creation is penetrated by His energy.' He 

 lives and moves by His power and laws in all things, 

 ever renewing His work, but supremely ' in the perfec- 

 tion of creatures endowed with reason,' in man. 'He 

 sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or 

 a sparrow fall.' The Infinitude of Space and the 

 Eternity of worlds are the home of His omnipotence 

 and omniscience, and He is the Parent of all good. 

 The marvellous manifestations of His power do not 



