ON THE DEVELOPED CONCEPTION OF GOD. 347 



Herbert Spencer, the philosopher of evolution, adopts 

 this idea as the one most reconcilable with modern 

 physical and natural science, as well as with the whole 

 process and doctrine of evolution. 



2. There is in the universe an Existence over and 

 above all phenomena, whether viewed as unconditioned 

 Existence with Kant, as infinite Substance with Spinoza, 

 as an inscrutable Power with Spencer; a transcendent 

 Something, of which matter and mind are alike merely 

 phenomenal manifestations or modes, which are far from 

 being exhaustive of its whole nature. There is an Ulti- 

 mate Reality, in which, according to the great conception 

 of Spinoza, as according to Herbert Spencer wLo has 

 adopted it, mind and matter, subject and object, thought 

 and thing, are finally united ; a reality vaster and deeper 

 than all we know or dream of in matter; grander than 

 all we can think of or imagine in mind which, as we 

 know it, is perhaps only a fugitive, though glorious, 

 flower, thrown out from it here on the earth in the 

 course of its long evolutionary march. There is an 

 Absolute Existence, as according to Hegel (though not 

 essentially Thought, as described by him), unfolding 

 itself slowly in the transmutations of matter through 

 the ages, aspiring constantly higher, from matter to life, 

 from life to sensation, from sensation to consciousness, 

 from consciousness to spirit ; a Power one and the same 

 with that which now exhibits itself in the various Pro- 

 tean transformations of the stock of physical energies, 

 which are merely so many phenomenal masks it has 

 assumed, without any or all of them conveying a full or 

 true description of its real nature. There is a mighty 

 living and universal Power which, though not itself 

 individual, is for ever bursting forth into endless indi- 

 vidual life, in plant, or animal, or man, or angel; a 



