COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



we call philosophy is one and the same. There 

 are not three successive or superposed processes. 

 There is one continuous process, which (if I may- 

 be allowed to invent a rather formidable word 

 in imitation of Coleridge) is best described as 

 a continuous process o^ deanthropomorphizatioriy 

 or the stripping off of the anthropomorphic at- 

 tributes with which primeval philosophy clothed 

 the unknown Power which is manifested in 

 phenomena. Or, to be still more accurate, we 

 may describe the process of philosophic evolu- 

 tion as a continuous integration, in thought, of 

 causal agencies ; of which process the gradual 

 deanthropomorphization of these agencies is 

 the necessary symptom and result, — until, as 

 the end of the process, when all causal agencies 

 have become integrated in the conception of a 

 single Causal Agency, the tendency to ascribe 

 anthropomorphic attributes to this Agency has 

 reached its minimum. 



We may now consider this process somewhat 

 more in detail, as it has been concretely exem- 

 plified in history. And in doing this it will be- 

 come apparent that, in spite of its vagueness, 

 its inadequacy, and the fundamental error which 

 vitiates it, the Comtean conception undeniably 

 contained an adumbration of the truth. It re- 

 cognized the process of deanthropomorphiza- 

 tion as historically displayed, though it did not 

 interpret it psychologically. And in several of 

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