OH. vn.] ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND COSMISM. 171 



legitimate business of philosophy ; and that, lastly, with the 

 further progress of thought, philosophy must give up the 

 attempt to ascertain the nature of this hidden Power oi 

 powers, and concern itself solely with coexistences and 

 sequences among phenomena. All this is true so far as it 

 goes, its confirmation being written on every page of history 

 Nevertheless, all this is but one side of the truth. The truth 

 has another side, which Comte never saw, and which no 

 writer of the Positivist school has ever given any evidence 

 of discerning. What Comte did not see was, that from first 

 to last there is no change in the nature of the psychological 

 process ; and that, even at the last, the hidden Power under- 

 lying and sustaining the world of phenomena can no more 

 be ignored than at the beginning. Let us examine both these 

 points, and note well their significance. 



In the first place there is no change in the nature of the 

 mental processes concerned in the development. Prom first 

 to last, whether we give a theological, a metaphysical, or a 

 scientific explanation of any phenomenon, we are interpreting 

 it in terms of consciousness. To recur to our old illustra- 

 tion; on seeing a tree blown down by the wind, the primitive 

 man concludes that the wind possesses intelligence and 

 exerts volition: he calls it Hermes, or Boreas, or Orpheus, 

 and erects to it a temple, wherein by prayer and sacrifice he 

 may avert its displeasure. In a later age the wind is no 

 longer regarded as endowed with conscious volition ; but it 

 is still regarded as exerting effort, and overcoming the forces 

 which tend to keep the tree in its place. Obviously this is 

 at bottom the same conception as its predecessor, save that it 

 is less crudely anthropomorphic. Now in the scientific ex- 

 planation, we omit also the conception of a specific nisus or 

 effort, and regard the falling of the tree as an event invariably 

 consequent upon the blowing of the wind with a given 

 momentum. Here, perhaps, it may seem that we quite get 

 rid of every subjective or anthropomorphic element. But 



