COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



ligent and responsible beings/ They who seek 

 to know more than this, to transcend the con- 

 ditions under which alone is knowledge possi- 

 ble, are, in Goethe's profound language, as wise 

 as little children who, when they have looked 

 into a mirror, turn it around to see what is be- 

 hind it. 



To the other objection above hinted at, it 

 may be replied that undoubtedly the conception 

 of sin here developed is too abstract to awaken 

 the needful feelings in any save those who have 

 obtained, either through their own inquiries or 

 by the aid of instruction from others, a firm 

 grasp of some philosophic theory of the uni- 

 verse like the one crudely sketched in the pre- 

 sent work. For the larger part of the world 

 to-day the anthropomorphic doctrine of sin is 

 unquestionably the better one, — and it is the 

 doctrine held by the larger part of the world. 

 If it were possible for men to come by the thou- 

 sand, as on a second day of Pentecost, and em- 

 brace the views here expounded, or others like 

 them, without having slowly and surely grown 

 to them, there would be great risk of their go- 

 ing away with a frail and unserviceable religious 

 theory. But as it is absolutely certain that such 

 views will never become prevalent until the sci- 

 entific philosophy upon which they are based 

 has become generally understood and accepted, 

 ^ See above, vol. i. pp. 139, 140. 



318 



