222 PHILOSOPHY 



solved, in the sense of the very incompletely solved problem of 

 philosophy. But as long as human experience develops, and as long 

 as philosophy bestows upon experience the earnest and candid 

 efforts of reflecting minds, the solution of the ontological problem 

 will be approached, but never fully reached. That Being of the 

 World which Kant, in the negative and critical part of his work, 

 left as an X, unknown and unknowable, the last century has filled 

 with a new and far richer content than it ever had before. Especially 

 has this century changed the conception of the Unity of the Uni- 

 verse in such manner that it can never return again to its ancient 

 form. On the one hand, this Unity cannot be made comprehensible 

 in terms of any one scientific or philosophical principle or law. 

 Science and philosophy are both moving farther and farther away 

 from the hope of comprehending the variety and infinite manifold- 

 ness of the Absolute in terms of any one side or aspect of man's 

 complex experience. But, on the other hand, the confidence in this 

 essential Unity is not diminished, but is the rather confirmed. As 

 humanity itself develops, as the Selfhood of man grows in the 

 experience of the world which is its own environment, and of the 

 world within which it is its own true Self, humanity may reasonably 

 hope to win an increased, and increasingly valid, cognition of the 

 Being of the World as the Absolute Self. 



Closely connected, and in a way essentially identical with the 

 ontological problem, is that of the origin, validity, and rational 

 value of the ideas of humanity. May it not be said that the nine- 

 teenth century transfers to the twentieth an increased interest in 

 and a heightened appreciation of the so-called practical problems 

 ef philosophy. Science and philosophy certainly ought to combine 

 and are they not ready to combine? in the effort to secure 

 a more nearly satisfactory understanding and solution of the pro- 

 blems afforded by the aesthetical, ethical, and religious sentiments 

 and ideals of the race. To philosophy this combination means that 

 it shall be more fruitful than ever before in promoting the uplift and 

 betterment of mankind. The fulfillment of the practical mission of 

 philosophy involves the application of its conceptions and prin- 

 ciples to education, politics, morals, as a matter of law and of cus- 

 tom, and to religion as matter both of rational faith and of the con- 

 duct of life. 



How, then, can this brief and imperfect sketch of the outline of the 

 development of philosophy in the nineteenth century better come to 

 a close than by words of encouragement and of exhortation as well. 

 There are, in my judgment, the plainest signs that the somewhat 

 too destructive and even nihilistic tendencies of the second and 

 third quarters of the nineteenth century have reached their limit; 

 that the strife of science and philosophy, and of both with religion, 



