Prof. Le Conie as a Philosopher. 229 



ing out after ideals hopelessly beyond his reach. Further- 

 more, the sole purpose of the progressive individuation of the 

 Divine energy by evolution is that God may have in man 

 "something not only to contemplate, but also to love and be 

 loved by." And "without immortality this whole purpose is 

 balked — the whole process of cosmic evolution is futile."* 



The position is thus, at bottom, a simple expression of trust 

 in the complete rationality of the universe, a profession of 

 faith in reason which has become a faith but the more surely 

 grounded by the scientific discoveries of the orderliness and 

 reasonableness of nature's ways. 



In his treatment of the problem of evil Professor Le Conte 

 held that physical evil is the necessary price of the intelligent, 

 moral evil the inevitable condition of the moral, personality. 

 Men might conceivably have been created innocent, but not 

 morally good. Choice of the good, which morality implies, is 

 only possible for one who has also the knowledge of evil. 

 And the sting which lurks in this doctrine, so far as moral 

 degenerates and other unfortunates are concerned, is re- 

 moved by the conviction of the essential deathlessness of the 

 self-conscious personality. 



Professor Le Conte' s favorite method consisted in bringing 

 forward upon each topic treated two opposing, and apparently 

 equally plausible, views, and then showing that usuall)' each 

 was right in what it asserted and wrong in what it denied; 

 that both were partial truths which could be welded together 

 into a higher synthesis,— a method which to the student of 

 philosophy will at once suggest the Hegelian dialectic, with 

 its triune forward movement. 



Suggestive also of Hegel is Professor Le Conte' s general 

 conception of reality as one eternal consciousness which 

 "outers" itself in the world of nature, while remaining one 

 with itself throughout, is immanent in this world as its one 

 moving principle; and his methcd of escape from the panthe- 

 ism implied in this view by holding that this consciousness is 



*"The Conception of God," pp. 77-S. 



