PREFACE XVli 



of spirits as having each a reaHty as inexpugnable 

 as his own, as sacred as his own, with rights to be 

 revered ; supremely, the right of self-direction from 

 personal conviction. This immutable perfection of 

 the moral recognition by God, let it be repeated, 

 is the living Bond in the whole world of spirits. 

 Did it not exist, did God not exist, there would be, 

 there could be, no such world ; there could be no 

 other spirit at all. Real creation, then, means such 

 an eternal dependence of other souls upon God that the 

 non-existence of God zvould involve the non-existence 

 of all souls, while his existence is the essential supple- 

 menting Reality that raises them, to reality ; without 

 him, they woidd be btit void names and bare possi- 

 bilities. Thus in the Divine office designated "Crea- 

 tion," exactly as in that denoted by "Redemption" 

 or "Regeneration," the word is a metaphor; but in 

 the one case as in the other, it symbolises a reality 

 eternal and essential, of a significance no less than 

 stupendous. 



X. The key to the whole view is found in its 

 doctrine concerning the system of causation. It 

 reduces Efficient Cause from that supreme place in 

 philosophy which this has hitherto held, and gives 

 the highest, the organising place to Final Cause 

 instead. Final Cause becomes now not merely the 

 guiding and regulative, but actually the grounding 



