182 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. i. 



to consider the common characteristics of the theological 

 phases of thought which, in this terminal phase, are assumed 

 to be outgrown and superseded. Let us premise that the 

 word " Cosmos " is, by virtue of its etymology and of strict 

 scientific usage, the antithetical correlative to the word 

 "Chaos." It denotes the entire phenomenal universe; it 

 connotes the orderly uniformity of nature, and the negation of 

 miracle or extraneous disturbance of any kind. Now it is a 

 common characteristic of the theologico-metaphysical phases 

 of philosophy above passed in review, that while they have 

 sought to explain the universe of phenomena, their explana- 

 tions have been not purely cosmic, but to a greater or less extent 

 anthropomorphic. Instead of restricting themselves to the 

 interpretation of the uniformities of coexistence and sequence 

 discovered by science, they have had recourse to unveritiabie 

 hypotheses concerning supernatural beings and occult entities, 

 and have thus complicated the conception of the Cosmos with 

 that of anthropomorphic agencies that are extra-cosmic. We 

 have seen that the process of scientific generalization, which 

 underlies the evolution of philosophy from epoch to epoch, is 

 characterized not by the elimination of these agencies, but by 

 their integration into a single Agency, from which the an- 

 thropomorphic attributes are stripped, and which is regarded 

 as revealed in and through the Cosmos. Manifestly, then, 

 while it is impossible to define this process as a development 

 from Anthropomorphism to Positivism, it is on the other 

 hand strictly accurate and entirely appropriate to define it as 

 a development from Anthropomorphism to Cosmism. I do 

 not know where we could find, for our purpose, a pair of 

 terms more happily contrasted. For besides the connota- 

 tions just described, there is also involved in this termino- 

 logy the recognition of the fact that, at the outset, men 

 interpreted the Cosmos in terms of human feeling and 

 volition ; while, on the other hand, as the newest result of 

 scientific generalization, we now find them beginning to 



