COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



the individual out of balance with his envlron- 

 mentj and thus to detract from his physical or 

 moral completeness of life. The seeking after 

 righteousness is characteristic of the modern fol- 

 lower of science quite as much as it was charac- 

 teristic of the mediaeval saint ; save that while 

 the latter symbolized his yearning as a desire to 

 become like his highest concrete conception of 

 human excellence ideally embodied in Christ, 

 the former no longer employs any such anthro- 

 pomorphic symbol, but formulates his feeling in 

 scientific phrase as the persistent desire to live 

 rightly, or in entire conformity to the require- 

 ments of nature, — as Goethe expresses it, — 



**Im Ganzen, Guten, Wahren, resolut zu leben.'* 



The feeling is identical in the two cases, though 

 the difference in the technical expression of it 

 is as great as the difference between the the- 

 ology of the " Imitation " and the science of 

 " First Principles." Now when a law of nature 

 has been violated (to use the current phrase), 

 the religion of the scientific inquirer tells him 

 that a sin has been committed ; and he is smit- 

 ten with a sense of self-reproach no whit less 

 keen than that experienced by his mediaeval 

 predecessor. The distinction between the sci- 

 entific and the religious view of the breach of 

 law is thus apparent. When an act has been 

 committed which must entail more or less mis- 

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