ch. vii.] ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND COSMISM. 173 



sciousness." Thus the three stages disappear entirely, and 

 •"he three terminal conceptions which are alleged as distinc- 

 tively characteristic of the stages are seen to be identical. 

 The God of the monotheist, the Nature of the metaphysician, 

 and the Absolute Being which science is compelled to 

 postulate, differ only as symbols differ which stand for the 

 same eternal fact. If there be any confusion still left 

 regarding this point, it will be dispelled by the following 

 citation from Mr. Spencer : — 



" The progress of our conceptions, and of each branch of 

 knowledge, is from beginning to end intrinsically alike. There 

 are not three methods of philosophizing radically opposed ; 

 but one method of philosophizing which remains, in essence, 

 the same. At first, and to the last, the conceived causal 

 agencies of phenomena have a degree of generality cor- 

 responding to the width of the generalizations which 

 experiences have determined ; and they change just as 

 gradually as experiences accumulate. The integration of 

 causal agencies, originally thought of as multitudinous 

 and local, but finally believed to be one and universal, is a 

 process which involves the passing through all intermediate 

 steps between these extremes ; and any appearance of stages 

 can be but superficial. Supposed concrete and individual 

 causal agencies coalesce in the mind as fast as groups ot 

 phenomena are assimilated, or seen to be similarly caused 

 Along with their coalescence, comes a greater extension of 

 their individualities, and a concomitant loss of distinctness 

 in their individualities Gradually, by continuance of such 

 coalescences, causal agencies become, in thought, diffused and 

 indefinite. And eventually, without any change in the 

 nature of the process, there is reached the consciousness of a 

 universal causal agency, which cannot be conceived. 



"As the progress of thought is one, so is the end one. 

 There are not three possible terminal conceptions ; but only 

 a single terminal conception. When the theological idea of 



