INTRODUCTION 



come to Fiskethe thought which he describes as 

 having the character of a sort of " revelation," 

 the thought whose genesis he set forth in the 

 speech at Mr. Clark's dinner (" A Century of 

 Science," IV.). The " good end " was defined 

 to him. The " little child " of the hypothesis 

 about infancy had revealed to him nature's tele- 

 ology. 



39. The Concord Summer School address 

 on " The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light 

 of his Origin," gave Fiske the opportunity to 

 proceed to that exposition of the religious as- 

 pect of Spencerianism for which he had thus 

 been prepared. It is not altogether surprising 

 that the contemporary critics of this address 

 exaggerated the changed point of view which 

 could indeed be detected in it, when it was com- 

 pared with the " Cosmic Philosophy." The 

 various indications that we have already found 

 in that work pointing towards a more posi- 

 tive doctrine of the religious consciousness and 

 of its object, could not well be observed by 

 the reader apart from a knowledge of the con- 

 sequences to which they later led the author. 

 The vigorous polemic against anthropomor- 

 phism in the " Cosmic Philosophy," the equally 

 vigorous attack upon various unscientific tend- 

 encies, the emphasis there laid upon the nega- 

 tive side of the Spencerian concept of religion, 

 cxxiii 



