INTRODUCTION 



in New York (May 13, 1895), Fiske gave the 

 most considerable autobiographical statement 

 that was published during his life regarding the 

 steps whereby he had gradually been led to a 

 clearer consciousness of his later conclusions. 

 This process, however, was not even yet wholly 

 completed, for the book entitled "Through 

 Nature to God " expresses a still further elabo- 

 ration of the very tendencies that Fiske de- 

 scribes in his just-cited speech. When one 

 surveys, however, the whole outcome of the 

 growth thus indicated, he gets the following 

 most general view of the motives that deter- 

 mined Fiske's later thoughts about religious 

 topics : — 



(i) First and most critical amongst the con- 

 siderations that came to govern Fiske's opin- 

 ions regarding the significance of the doctrine 

 of evolution, was the reflection that, however 

 far the process of " deanthropomorphization " 

 might go, it was still necessary for the evolu- 

 tionist to conceive the whole process as express- 

 ing, in phenomenal terms, some kind of Mean- 

 ing. And the ground for this necessity was 

 especially suggested to him by the fact that the 

 highest outcome of evolution, as known to us, 

 actually has an intelligible meaning. For this 

 highest outcome is the intellectual and moral 

 nature of man. The situation is this, — In 

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