INTRODUCTION 



man Soul has not been cherishing in Religion; 

 a delusive phantom, but in spite of seemingly- 

 endless groping and stumbling it has been ris- 

 ing to the recognition of its essential kinship 

 with the ever-living God. Of all the implica- 

 tions of the doctrine of evolution with regard 

 to Man, I believe the very deepest and strong- 

 est to be that which asserts the Everlasting 

 Reality of Religion." 



43. We have now followed in outline the 

 later developments of Fiske's thought, not at- 

 tempting criticism, but endeavouring to make 

 especially prominent the naturalness and conti- 

 nuity of the process by showing, with Fiske's 

 own aid, what were the motives, present already 

 before the " Cosmic Philosophy " was written, 

 manifest from time to time in the course of that 

 work, and effective in Fiske's later develop- 

 ment, — the motives upon which the entire pro- 

 cess depended. It was, as a fact, an organic 

 growth, not a conversion. Our general view 

 of the development is this, — A man heart- 

 ily devoted from the outset to the problems 

 of human life and history, but fitted by his 

 marvellously ample and versatile early train- 

 ing to appreciate the interests of scientific study, 

 found himself growing up with the wonderful 

 new doctrine of the transformation of species, 

 and experiencing the early expressions of the 

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