74 ASSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



its individual being in terms of its Ideal. In short, 

 it must be thought in terms of final cause alone. 

 No mind can have an efficient relation to another 

 mind ; efficiency is the attribute of every mind toward 

 its own acts and life, or toward the world of mere 

 "things " which forms the theatre of its action ; and 

 the causal relation between viiiids must be that of 

 ideality, simply and purely. 



This is a religious truth so clearly fundamental 

 that when once our attention is brought to it we 

 cannot but give it assent. So far from denying it, we 

 incline, rather, to say — and rightly — that we have 

 in somewise always known it. Yet it is directly 

 violated by our ordinary and sensuous theistic con- 

 ceptions ; and not until the pantheistic insight has 

 been realised in our minds, whether by name or 

 no it matters not, — realised even if transcended, 

 and, indeed, only to be transcended, — do we clearly 

 discover that this violation exists.^ 



V 



But while this permanent insight of pantheism 

 must be carried up into all genuine theistic thought, 

 it is also true that in itself the insight falls fatally 



^ The preceding paragraphs have been much rewritten from the form 

 in which they were (1885-6) originally printed, in order to remove the 

 risk of misinterpretation in regard to the doctrine of " immanence." 

 Cf. the foot-note to p. 60. See also The Conception of God, pp. 97-100, 

 I14-132, especially 131-132. 



