The Doctrine of Evolution. 455 



an evolutionist is found entertaining the beliefs in a per- 

 sonal God and an immortal soul, nevertheless these beliefs 

 are not philosophically reconcilable with his scientific theory 

 of things, but are mere remnants of an old-fashioned su- 

 perstition from which he has not succeeded in freeing him- 

 self. 



Here one must pause to inquire what Prof. Haeckel 

 means by " a personal God." If he refers to the Latin con- 

 ception of a God remote from the world of phenomena and 

 manifested only through occasional interference the con- 

 ception that has until lately prevailed in the Western world 

 since the time of St. Augustine then we may agree with 

 him ; the practical effect of the doctrine of evolution is to 

 abolish such a conception. But with regard to the Greek 

 conception entertained by St. Athanasius; the conception 

 of God as immanent in the world of phenomena and mani- 

 fested in every throb of its mighty rhythmical life ; the 

 deity that Richard Hooker, prince of English churchmen, 

 had in mind when he wrote of Natural Law that " her seat 

 is the bosom of God and her voice the harmony of the 

 world " with regard to this conception the practical effect 

 of the doctrine of evolution is not to abolish but to 

 strengthen and confirm it. For, into whatever province of 

 Nature we carry our researches, the more deeply we pene- 

 trate into its laws and methods of action, the more clearly 

 do we see that all provinces of Nature are parts of an or- 

 ganic whole animated by a single principle of life that is 

 infinite and eternal. I have no doubt Prof. Haeckel would 

 not only admit this, but would scout any other view as in- 

 consistent with the monism which he professes. But he 

 would say that this infinite and eternal principle of life is 

 not psychical, and therefore can not be called in any sense 

 " a personal God." In an ultimate analysis, I suspect Prof. 

 Haeckel's ubiquitous monistic principle would turn out to 

 be neither more nor less than Dr. Buchner's mechanical 

 force (Kraft). On the other hand, I have sought to show 

 in my little book The Idea of God that the Infinite and 

 Eternal Power that animates the universe must be psychical 

 in its nature, that any attempt to reduce it to mechanical 

 force must end in absurdity, and that the only kind of 

 monism which will stand the test of an ultimate analysis 

 is monotheism. While in the chapter on Anthropomorphic 

 Theism, in my Cosmic Philosophy, I have taken great pains 

 to point out the difficulties in which (as finite thinkers) we 



