6 Preliminary Considerations 



has been placed on a firm basis of thought, and by now 

 very many of the greatest minds admit that this con- 

 ception, which constitutes the very groundwork of 

 religion (even though later, abstract speculations may 

 have masked it in some quarters), is justifiable on 

 metaphysical grounds; while I would make bold to say 

 that hardly one is uninfluenced by it 1 . The chief meta- 

 physical difficulty of belief in Divine Personality is that 

 to think of the Ego is at once to think of the Non-Ego 

 of something outside the Personality. Lotze escapes the 

 difficulty by distinguishing between thought and ex- 

 perience, thus getting away from the Hegelian stand- 

 point. "We admit that the Ego is thinkable only in 

 relation to the Non-Ego, but we add that it may be ex- 

 perienced, previous to and out of every such relation, 

 and that to this is due the possibility of its subsequently 

 becoming thinkable in that relation 2 ." Lotze elaborates 

 this proposition by showing that, though the actions of 

 finite personalities depend on external stimuli, the con- 



1 For those who wish for something on a smaller scale than 

 Lotze's Microcosmus, F. B. Jevons's Personality and Harte's The 

 Philosophical Treatment of Divine Personality may serve as good 

 introductions the former dealing mainly with the concepts of 

 personality, the latter with its extension to the personality of God. 

 Illingworth's Personality, Human and Divine is a standard book ; 

 Platt's Immanence and Christian Thought, Driesch's Problem of 

 Individuality, Haldane's Mechanism, Life and Personality are all 

 suggestive in their own departments; and many other works 

 might be cited. Most important of all, perhaps, is W. Richmond's 

 Essay on Personality as a Philosophical Principle. Professor 

 Pringle Pattison's Gifford Lectures, The Idea of God in Recent 

 Philosophy, which have appeared since the bulk of this book was 

 written, should be in the hands of every serious student. The 

 implications of personality are there dealt with very fully. 



1 Microcosmus, Bk ix. Ch. iv. p. 680, trs. Hamilton and Jones. 

 This Chapter, together with Bk n, Ch. v., should be read carefully 

 by the student of Personality. 



