COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



Thus with regard to its practical bearings 

 upon human conduct, the religious attitude of 

 our scientific philosophy seems to be abso- 

 lutely identical with the religious attitude of 

 Christianity. We arrive at a deeper reason than 

 has hitherto been disclosed for the difference 

 between our position with reference to Chris- 

 tianity, and that which has been assumed by 

 Radicalism and by Positivism. It is not merely 

 that we refuse to attack Christianity because we 

 recognize its necessary adaptation to a certain 

 stage of culture, not yet passed by the average 

 minds of the community ; it is that we still re- 

 gard Christianity as, in the deepest sense, our 

 own religion. Or, if a somewhat different form 

 of statement be preferred, we regard it as a faith 

 which, precisely in the act of realizing more and 

 more fully its own ideal, becomes more and 

 more fully identified with the faith which we 

 are conscious of cherishing. Instead of the in- 

 tolerant hostility of the Infidel, or the indifferent 

 neutrality of the Positivist, we offer cordial aid 

 and sympathy. I cannot better illustrate the 

 twofold source of this sympathy than by citing 

 the words of a lady who is fairly entitled to 

 rank as one of the most original and suggestive 

 thinkers of our time. Speaking of the lower of 

 the two lines of thought which determine the 

 critical attitude of the evolutionist. Miss Hen- 

 nell says : " When we see the various modes 

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