INTRODUCTION 



in objective reality." When we free this teleo- 

 logical instinct from its complications with the 

 older design argument, it expresses itself in "our 

 faith that, in the orderly sequence of events, 

 there is a meaning which our minds could 

 fathom were they only vast enough." Our con- 

 ception is to remain as before, symbolic. But 

 it is certain that we cannot regard the eternal 

 Power as material, that we must regard it as 

 quasi - psychical, and that we must define its 

 meaning as ethical. Further, theoretical defini- 

 tion of the nature of God is still subject, for 

 Fiske's mind, to the paradoxes which, in the 

 " Cosmic Philosophy," had seemed entirely to 

 exclude us from any definition of the Divine. 

 But " practically there is a purpose in the world 

 whereof it is our highest duty to learn the les- 

 son, however well or ill we may fare in render- 

 ing a scientific account of it. When from the 

 dawn of life we see all things working together 

 toward the evolution of the highest spiritual at- 

 tributes of Man, we know, however the words 

 may stumble in which we try to say it, that God 

 is in the deepest sense a moral Being. The ever- 

 lasting source of phenomena is none other than 

 the infinite Power that makes for righteousness. 

 Thou canst not by searching find Him out : 

 yet put thy trust in Him, and against thee the 

 gates of hell shall not prevail ; for there is nei- 

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