INTRODUCTION 



than by means of any purely abstract formula 

 to which all its stages conform, so, in case of 

 religion, he came to be increasingly disposed to 

 estimate its significance, as a process of adjust- 

 ment, in terms of its highest outcome; that is, in 

 terms of the most elevated positive conceptions 

 that men had formed of the significance of their 

 spiritual relations to the Unseen. And in con- 

 sequence Fiske no longer followed the distinc- 

 tively Spencerian method of defining the essence 

 of religion in terms of an abstract formula which 

 expressed what was common to all religions, 

 high or low. 



To be sure, Fiske never enters into any po- 

 lemic against Spencer himself, even in his latest 

 expressions. But precisely that feature of the 

 Spencerian estimate of religion which some of 

 Spencer's opponents had most emphasized con- 

 stitutes the very aspect of the doctrine main- 

 tained in the " Cosmic Philosophy " which 

 Fiske, in his latest period, simply abandons. 

 Spencer's opponents had often objected to his 

 " reconciliation of science and religion," that in 

 making the essence of religion identical with the 

 element common to all religions, Spencer had 

 deprived religion of every useful positive char- 

 acter. In the " Cosmic Philosophy " Fiske, de- 

 spite the indications which we have seen of other 

 interests, seems, on jthe whole, to side with Spen- 

 cx 



