CH. iii.J COSMIC THEISM. 415 



force we know. Thus by the persistence of force, we really 

 mean the persistence of some Power which transcends our 

 knowledge and conception. The manifestations, as occurring 

 either in ourselves or outside of us, do not persist ; but that 

 which persists is the Unknown Cause of these manifesta- 

 tions. In other words, asserting the persistence of force is 

 but another mode of asserting an Unconditioned Heality, 

 without beginning or end." Thus as " a subjective analysis 

 proved that while, by the very conditions of thought, we are 

 prevented from knowing anything beyond relative being; 

 yet that, by these very snnie conditions of thought, an in- 

 definite consciousness of Absolute Being is necessitated,— 

 so here, by objective analysis, we similarly find that the 

 axiomatic truths of physical science unavoidably postulate 

 Absolute Being as their common basis."^ 



Combining, therefore, these mutually harmonious results, 

 and stating the theorem of the persistence of force in terms 

 of the theorem of the relativity of knowledge, we obtain the 

 following formula : — There exists a POWEE, to u-hich no limit 

 in time or space is conceivable, of which all phenomena, as pre- 

 sented in consciousness, are manifestations, hut which we can 

 know only through these manifestations. Here is a formula 

 legitimately obtained by tlie employment of scientific methods, 

 as the last result of a subjective analysis on the one hand, 

 and of an objective analysis on the other hand. Yet this 

 formula, which presents itself as the final outcome of a 

 purely scientific inquiry, expresses also the fundamental 

 truth of Theism, — the truth by which religious feeling is 

 justified. The existence of God — the supreme truth asserted 

 alike by Christianity and by inferior historic religions — is 

 asserted with equal emphasis by that Cosmic Philosophy 

 which seeks its data in science alone. Thus, as Mr. Lewes 

 long ago observed, the remark of Comte, that the heavens 

 declare no other glory than the glory of Hipparchos and 



» First Principlea, pp. 189, 190. 



