ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND COSMISM 



conceptions ; but only a single terminal con- 

 ception. When the theological idea of the pro- 

 vidential action of one Being is developed to 

 its ultimate form, by the absorption of all in- 

 dependent secondary agencies, it becomes the 

 conception of a Being immanent in all pheno- 

 mena ; and the reduction of it to this state im- 

 plies the fading-away, in thought, of all those 

 anthropomorphic attributes by which the abo- 

 riginal idea was distinguished. The alleged last 

 term of the metaphysical system — the concep- 

 tion of a single great general entity. Nature^ as 

 the source of all phenomena — is a conception 

 identical with the previous one : the conscious- 

 ness of a single source which, in coming to be 

 regarded as universal, ceases to be regarded as 

 conceivable, differs in nothing but name from 

 the consciousness of one Being manifested in 

 all phenomena. And similarly, that which is 

 described as the ideal state of science — the 

 power to represent all observable phenomena as 

 particular cases of a single general fact — im- 

 plies the postulating of some ultimate Exist- 

 ence of which this single fact is alleged ; and 

 the postulating of this ultimate Existence in- 

 volves a state of consciousness indistinguishable 

 from the other two." ^ 



This completely unanswerable statement ex- 

 hibits Mr. Spencer's unrivalled power of psy- 

 ^ Spencer, Recent Discussions, p. 124. 

 257 



