ANTHROPOMORPHIC THEISM 



of all and the inscrutable essence of all, without 

 whom the world would be as the shadow of a 

 vision, and thought itself would vanish, — to 

 these the conception of a presiding anthropo- 

 morphic Will is a gross and painful conception. 

 Even were it the highest phenomenal conception 

 which can be framed, it would still be inadequate 

 to represent the Ineffable Reality. But we do 

 not and cannot know even that it is the highest. 

 Hegel was rash with all the metaphysician's rash- 

 ness when he said that Humanity is the most 

 perfect type of existence in the universe. Our 

 knowledge of the Cosmos has been aptly com- 

 pared by Carlyle to the knowledge which a min- 

 now in its native creek has of the outlying ocean. 

 Of the innumerable combinations of matter and 

 incarnations of force which are going on within 

 the bounds of space, we know, save a few of the 

 simplest, those only which are confined to the 

 surface of our little planet. And to assert that 

 among them all there may not be forms of ex- 

 istence as far transcending humanity as human- 

 ity itself transcends the crystal or the seaweed, 

 is certainly the height of unwarrantable assump- 

 tion. 



** Think you this mould of hopes and fears 

 Could find no statelier than his peers 

 In yonder hundred million spheres ? '* 



Until our knowledge becomes coextensive with 



the entire world of phenomena, questions like 



229 



