INTRODUCTION 



dinner given to Herbert Spencer in New York, 

 November 9, 1882. The topic is " Evolution 

 and Religion.'* Words spoken in the pre- 

 sence of the master himself were not likely to 

 emphasize any nascent divergence of opinion. 

 Fiske very naturally lays stress upon the Power 

 that Spencer has called the Unknowable. His 

 phraseology in speaking of this Power is now 

 somewhat warmer than the customary Spence- 

 rian expressions, but is so rather by virtue of the 

 literary allusions employed, and also by virtue 

 of references to a possible teleology, than through 

 any very precise formulations. The assertion 

 of " the infinite and eternal Power " (the Spen- 

 cerian assertion) is identified " with the assertion 

 of an eternal Power, not ourselves, that forms 

 the speculative basis of all religion." " When 

 Carlyle speaks of the universe as, in very 

 truth, the Star-domed city of God, and reminds 

 us that through every crystal and through every 

 grass - blade, but most through every living 

 soul, the glory of a present God still beams, 

 he means pretty much the same thing that Mr. 

 Spencer means, save that he speaks with the 

 language of poetry, with language coloured by 

 emotion, and not with the precise, formal, and 

 colourless language of science." Fiske adds 

 quotations from the Old Testament to much 

 the same purpose ("Who by searching can find 

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