COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



and if we contemplate this theory of life, on the 

 one hand, as dependent on certain universal 

 laws of matter, motion, and force, and on the 

 other hand, as furnishing a basis for sundry- 

 doctrines relating to intellectual, moral, and 

 social phenomena ; then we have clearly come 

 into the domain of philosophy, strictly so called. 

 And the result would have been the same had 

 we started from astronomy, or physics, or any 

 other science ; save that nowhere else, perhaps, 

 could the true character of the process have been 

 so fully illustrated as in the case of biology — 

 the great central science upon the theorems of 

 which so closely depend the views which we 

 must hold concerning ourselves and our rela- 

 tions to the universe about us. 



That such transcendental inquiries as those 

 last mentioned belong strictly to philosophy, 

 and constitute the all-essential part of it, can be 

 questioned by none save those who, with Hegel, 

 would make philosophy synonymous with on- 

 tology. Upon these it is incumbent, if they 

 would establish their position, to dispose of the 

 facts and reasonings which have made the rela- 

 tivity of all knowledge the fundamental theorem 

 of modern psychology. For us it may suffice 

 to point out that the province of philosophy, 

 as here defined, includes all such inquiries into 

 cosmology, into psychology and ethics and re- 

 ligion, as philosophers have occupied themselves 

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