THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY 



inconsistent fashion in so far as his own special 

 studies have constrained him to adopt it, re- 

 mains nevertheless in his mind a barren concep- 

 tion. He quite fails to grasp the dynamical 

 view of things, and therefore naturally regards 

 the overthrow of Roman Catholic theology as 

 equivalent to the inauguration of atheism and 

 of anarchy. We have seen — on the other 

 hand — that all the iconoclastic attacks which 

 have been directed either against Christianity or 

 against the existing order of society have been 

 theoretically based upon fallacies which are in- 

 compatible with the Doctrine of Evolution. It 

 has been shown that, upon our general theory 

 of life, we can look for the realization of our 

 highest social ideal only to the perfecting of 

 individual character under the conditions at any 

 time existing. And for the perfecting of indi- 

 vidual character we must rely upon that increas- 

 ing sense of divine omnipresence and that in- 

 creasing aspiration after completeness of spiritual 

 life, which, taken together, constitute the per- 

 manent element in Christianity. When we add 

 that our ethical code, deduced theoretically from 

 the conception of Life set forth at such length 

 in the second part of this work, is at bottom 

 identical with the ethical code sanctioned by the 

 highest Christianity, it at last becomes apparent 

 how truly conservative, in the best sense of the 

 word, is the critical attitude of our philosophy. 



VOL. IV 3^9 



