INTRODUCTION 



with his discussion of ethics, " beside the sphere 

 to be assigned to morality, there is a wider 

 sphere to be assigned to religion." He must, 

 he tells us, attempt to connect this assertion 

 with the rest of his principles. And so in the 

 later chapters Fiske proceeds to attack these 

 questions both negatively and positively. 



29. The negative part of this task is not dif- 

 ficult to summarize. Fiske here states his case 

 with something of that polemic vigour which we 

 have previously noted in case of his chapter on 

 the Freedom of the Will, and in case of his 

 criticism of Comte. This polemic vigour of 

 expression is a trait of some of Fiske's early 

 essays, which went greatly into the background 

 in his later work, appearing only in a few of his 

 maturer critical papers. It stands in a rather 

 curious contrast to his wide intellectual hospi- 

 tality, to the great geniality of his mind, and to 

 the very tendencies which express themselves, 

 even in the " Cosmic Philosophy," on the posi- 

 tive side of his religious teaching. But at all 

 events, as to the main matter at issue, Fiske*s 

 Theism, as we learn in his second chapter, is 

 not to be an " anthropomorphic Theism." The 

 " teleological theory " of the universe is " use- 

 less from a scientific point of view." It is " a 

 perishable hypothesis, born of primeval habits 

 of thought." The more we know about nature 



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