COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



each branch of knowledge, is from beginning to 

 end intrinsically alike. There are not three 

 methods of philosophizing radically opposed ; 

 but one method of philosophizing which re- 

 mains, in essence, the same. At first, and to 

 the last, the conceived causal agencies of phe- 

 nomena have a degree of generality corre- 

 sponding to the width of the generalizations 

 which experiences have determined ; and they 

 change just as gradually as experiences accumu- 

 late. The integration of causal agencies, origi- 

 nally thought of as multitudinous and local, 

 but finally believed to be one and universal, is a 

 process which involves the passing through all 

 intermediate steps between these extremes ; and 

 any appearance of stages can be but superficial. 

 Supposed concrete and individual causal agencies 

 coalesce in the mind as fast as groups of pheno- 

 mena are assimilated, or seen to be similarly 

 caused. Along with their coalescence comes a 

 greater extension of their individualities, and a 

 concomitant loss of distinctness in their individ- 

 ualities. Gradually, by continuance of such coa- 

 lescences, causal agencies become, in thought, 

 diffused and indefinite. And eventually, with- 

 out any change in the nature of the process, 

 there is reached the consciousness of a universal 

 causal agency, which cannot be conceived. 



" As the progress of thought is one, so is the 

 ■end one. There are not three possible terminal 

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