41 8 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



ground for viewing Nature objectively as the manifesta- 

 tion of a creative Divine mind, akin to the human mind 

 that re-creates it in thought. But this our logical con- 

 struction of Nature is transformed by the author into the 

 real object of which it is but the shadow. Souls are 

 affirmed not only to be coexistent with God, but also co- 

 creators with him." 



Now it is just this last point, however, that shows the 

 universally social (that is, the public and objective) aspect 

 of my idealistic interpretation of Nature. I no more teach 

 a merely subjective basis for Nature than my reviewer 

 does. The difference is, that he is in the habit, whether 

 consciously so or not, of finding the objective aspect of the 

 world in the efficient causality of God alone, while I find 

 it in the harmonious cooperation of all the eternal minds, 

 including God as the Final Cause, or Supreme Ideal, to 

 which all are rationally attracted. But let readers consult 

 my pages xx-xxii, and compare them with my pages 

 361-369. I no more explain Nature without the moral 

 world of all spirits, nor without God, than my reviewer 

 does, nor than traditional theology and past philosophy 

 have done. The difference is that I introduce these by 

 the new principle of Final Causation instead of by the old 

 one of Efficient, and thus at once secure a consistent and 

 pure idealism, avoid the impasse of Natural Dualism, and 

 clear the problem of the anti-moral burdens involved in 

 monism on the one hand and in dualistic monotheism — 

 monarchotheism — on the other. 



In fine, the reviewer's closing criticism arises from his 

 failure to take in my total view. Perhaps it is too much 

 to expect, that, with its many unaccustomed elements, this 

 view should at once be grasped. I ought to say, too, that 

 the objective aspect of my form of idealism, shown in its 

 principle of social recognition and harmony, is the aspect 

 least worked out in the book ; the entire doctrine of the 



