INTRODUCTION 



to Fiske's sincerity in identifying the essence 

 of his new view with that of his former one, 

 despite the admitted " enlargement/' and the 

 " revelation." We now see why he could do 

 so, in view of tendencies already present in the 

 "Cosmic Philosophy." We also see that there 

 had indeed been a marked change in his atti- 

 tude. 



As to the old argument from " design," it is 

 in its older forms as unconvincing for Fiske 

 as ever. One must not conceive that an infi- 

 nite being plans, contrives, adapts means to ends, 

 and overcomes obstacles. The doctrine of 

 evolution showed us that the universe is not 

 a contrivance, " but an organism with an in- 

 dwelling principle of life. It was not made, but 

 it has grown." The teleology of nature is an 

 " all-pervading harmony." To be sure, we can- 

 not in detail conceive the means by which the 

 infinite power expresses itself at all, except in 

 so far as we say that its " expression " (not its 

 " contrivance," for it is not finite, that it should 

 contrive) shows us such and such a teleological 

 value phenomenally realized. But " the teleo- 

 logical instinct in man cannot be suppressed gr 

 ignored." " Our reason demands that there 

 shall be a reasonableness in the constitution 

 of things." The " craving after a final cause " 

 " can no more be extinguished than our behef 

 cxxviii 



