346 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



mining Whole to the receptively determined parts. 

 Their advantage over the older dualism is the ad- 

 vantage of logical consistency : their application of 

 efficient causation is universally continuous, and not 

 interrupted by a break as the doctrine of Jiat is — 

 a break merely feigned to be closed by the con- 

 ception of miracle. This advantage, however, they 

 only gain by sacrificing the distinct freedom of the 

 creature from the Creator, a price which the moral 

 consciousness declares should not be paid. 



So far, then, the choice seems to lie between an 

 unphilosophised and somewhat irrational dualism, 

 which nevertheless maintains the distinctness of 

 God from his creation (though, by its way of doing 

 this, it renders the proofs for him inconclusive), and 

 a philosophised monism, continuously coherent, ren- 

 dering clear proofs of its pantheistic Cause, but 

 really incapable of providing any genuine freedom 

 for the souls that are his parts. The failure of 

 both for the wants of the moral consciousness 

 makes a choice between them unavailing. With 

 neither of them can the conscience rest. Their fail- 

 ure is owing, at bottom, to one and the same defect : 

 they both interpret the causal relation of God to 

 souls in terms of efficiency, of agent and recipient. 



I have made this digression to enforce the posi- 

 tion, before taken, that the solution of our perplex- 

 ity requires the abandoning of this efficient notion 



