INTRODUCTION 



taint, IS free from limitation^ and is therefore 

 more worthy of worship than a limited object. 

 The added consideration, that the Unknowable 

 is the source of law, serves indeed to give the 

 conception something of the dignity of order- 

 liness. Yet Fiske now proceeds, in chapter 

 iv., on " Matter and Spirit,'' to a consideration 

 which at first seemed to take him into a decid- 

 edly different region of thought, but which 

 proved to be erelong related to the estimate of 

 our religious attitude, and to insure a needed 

 supplement to our way of viewing the Un- 

 knowable. 



3I0 The "Cosmic Philosophy" is in any 

 case, as we now are reminded, not materialistic. 

 Fiske opens the chapter by repudiating with 

 considerable vigour the general imputation sug- 

 gested by that term. He passes hereupon to 

 a more careful examination of the very mat- 

 ter which we earlier found him discussing (see 

 § 17 of this Introduction), namely, the ques- 

 tion about the relations of material and men- 

 tal energies. The argument here developed at 

 considerable length remains characteristic of 

 Fiske's thought throughout his career, and, as 

 we have said, differentiates him from Spencer. 

 While the latter, even in his latest utterances, 

 seems disposed to regard physical and mental 

 processes as capable of direct causal relations to 

 xcv 



