INTRODUCTION 



all these features had inevitably put out of the 

 reader's sight the fact that Fiske, even in the 

 " Cosmic Philosophy/' was already tending to- 

 wards the definition of a more positive philo- 

 sophy of religion. Fiske now, in his " Destiny 

 of Man," retells the story of evolution very 

 briefly, in the popular and untechnical fashion 

 which he could so wonderfully control ; but he 

 now retells it as a distinctly " dramatic " tale, the 

 unfolding of a plot. This process is now for him 

 explicitly teleological, in the sense that the plan 

 of the whole is legibly indicated by the facts re- 

 garding the evolution of man, and especially of 

 man's moral nature. Fiske insists, as vigorously 

 as ever, that the ultimate reality " remains far 

 above our finite power of comprehension." But 

 on the other hand, " the doctrine of evolution 

 shows us distinctly, for the first time, how the 

 creation and perfection of man is the goal toward 

 which nature's work has been tending from the 

 first." The intimation of immortality with which 

 the essay closes is not nearly as precise as were 

 Fiske's later opinions on the same subject, but 

 it is much more positive than the bare state- 

 ment of possibility with which the author of 

 "The Unseen World " had felt himself obliged 

 to be content. The reason given for this inti- 

 mation is now distinctly a teleological one. The 

 Power which has led man so long a road for 

 cxxiy 



