COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



this aboriginal tendency is nevertheless not yet 

 quite fully overcome. Even as in the cry- 

 ing of an infant at sight of a stranger may be 

 seen still feebly surviving the traces of feel- 

 ings organized in the race at a time when the 

 strange meant the dangerous, so likewise may 

 we detect evanescent symptoms of a fetish- 

 istic style of reasoning in many highly subtil- 

 ized ontological theories now in vogue ; of which 

 the volitional theory of causation, above dealt 

 with, is a notable example. This archaic mode 

 of reasoning, now become exceptional, was once 

 universal. Now applied only to the most ab- 

 struse problems, it was at first equally employed 

 in the solution of the simplest. Storm and sun- 

 shine, as well as defeat and victory, were re- 

 garded as the manifestations of superhuman 

 volition and the achievements of superhuman 

 intelligence. But scientific generalization, stead- 

 ily arranging in correlated groups phenomena 

 which had hitherto seemed isolated and lawless, 

 was followed by the generalization of presiding 

 divinities. And this went on until, in compara- 

 tively modern times, the habit of viewing nature 

 as an organic whole has resulted in monothe- 

 ism. As the most prominent result of this gen- 

 eralizing process we have seen slowly going 

 on an elimination, from the objects of men's 

 worship, of the less noble qualities originally 

 ascribed to them. One by one the grosser sen- 

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