CH. VI.] THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY. 499 



tinctly realized without ever being realized absolutely, just 

 as the hyperbola for ever approaches its asymptote without 

 coming in contact with it. There will always be room left 

 for that aspiration after a yet higher fulness of life, after a 

 " closer walk with God," which, whether it be expressed by 

 the symbols of science or by the symbols of mythology, is 

 tlie indestructible essence of all religion. An absolutely 

 perfect state of society would be, by a curious and instruc- 

 tive paradox, a state in which the religious sense would 

 have no further function to subserve, because goodness 

 would have become automatic and aspiration would be at 

 an end. 



But while our ideal state of society is one which can only 

 be gradually, relatively, and approximatively realized, it has 

 none the less a present existence as an ideal which we must 

 ever strive to incarnate as far as possible in the concrete 

 facts which make up the sum of our every-day life. There is 

 a practical sense in which the evolutionist, no less than the 

 radical .sceptic or the orthodox believer, must recognize that 

 he has a missionary function to fulfil. We do indeed aim, 

 in conformity with surrounding conditions, at the realization 

 of our social and ethical ideal, — seeking to do what within 

 us lies to hasten the time when it may be proclaimed, with 

 fresh significance, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

 But how shall we seek to effect our purpose ? Shall we go 

 forth to all the world and preach some " gospel of Evolu- 

 tion," in the hope that men, seeing the error of their ways, 

 shall suddenly embrace the new faith and be lienceforth 

 spiritually healed ? In two ways our philosophy has taught 

 us the absurdity of such a proceeding. First, such doctrines 

 are too subtle, too spiritual indeed, to be apprehended other- 

 wise than by a slow process of growth, intellectual and 

 moral. Accordingly, since men's theologies are narrowly 

 implicated with their principles of action, the taking away 

 of their theology by any other process than that of slowly 



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