450 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. iil 



be honestly misinterpreted as implying the identification of 

 Deity with so-called " blind force," and as thus conveying a 

 lovjer conception than that upon which theology insists, then 

 we need not shrink from the scarcely-greater anthropomor- 

 phism involved in speaking of the unknown Cause as a 

 Spirit manifested in phenomena. Such a choice of symbols 

 will at least serve to show that we no more identify Deity 

 with " blind force " than we identify Mind with " brute 

 matter," or a psychical shock with a physical pulsation, and 

 that, in our innermost intent, we are striving to convey a 

 higher conception than that upon which theology insists. 



But in thus consenting to adopt a term about which quasi- 

 psychical connotations have clustered, we do not implicitly 

 consent to the clothing of Deity with definable psychical 

 attributes. The moment we use the words "intelligence" 

 and " volition," we are using words which have distinct 

 meanings, as descriptive of certain circumscribed modes of 

 psychical activity in man and some other animals. Except as 

 descriptive of these circumscribed modes of psychical activity, 

 they have no meanings whatever : and to seek to apply 

 them to the unlimited activity (whether quasi-psychical 

 or not) of a Being that is not circumscribed by an " objec- 

 tive datum " of any sort, is simply to call into existence a 

 number of illegitimate propositions which, if dealt with as 

 legitimate, would entangle us once more in the net- work of 

 absurdities from which we were set free by the chapter on 

 Anthropomorphic Theism. 



Thus we are gradually finding ourselves obliged to regard 

 the suggestion with which we ended the chapter just 

 mentioned as something more than a mere random sugges- 

 tion. Whether it be true or not that, within the bounds of 

 the phenomenal universe the highest type of existence is that 

 which we know as Humanity, the conclusion is in every way 

 forced upon us that, quite independently of limiting condi- 

 tions in space or time, there is a form of Being which can 



