CHAP, iv THE APPEAL TO HISTORY 41 



the repudiation of the claim of physical science to rank 

 as an authority in the spiritual life of man. Nature, 

 according to Kaftan, is to be interpreted by history, 

 not history by nature. As a progressive spiritual 

 being, reaching his full stature under Christian influ- 

 ences, man claims that he shall not ultimately be 

 made subject to the forces of blind and unprogressive 

 nature ; he cries out for God to rescue the historical 

 gains of human culture and human faith from the de- 

 structive forces of the natural world ; he finds God 

 answering or anticipating his cry in Jesus Christ. 

 There is nothing like this in Hatch. With him 

 history scarcely differs from a new department of 

 physical science. But we observe a manifest parallel 

 between this Ritschlian position and Comte's subjec- 

 tive synthesis or subordination of the head to the 

 heart. At the same time, there are immense differ- 

 ences. Justifiably or unjustifiably, the Ritschl school, 

 amid all their scorn for dogmatic metaphysics, be- 

 lieve that they themselves, in their own way, have 

 verified faith in God. They think that they have 

 saved theology from the wreck of opinions, by stating 

 it as a view of the contents of historical revelation, 

 and as vouched for by its correspondence with man's 

 nature and needs. In Comtism the subjective or 

 affectional synthesis is admittedly a piece of human 

 make-believe. Objectively corresponding to it, there 

 is nothing. 



But how does Comtism itself, which has dismissed 

 all interest in theology and all belief in God, make its 

 own appeal to history for social guidance ? Or in 

 what different ways may such an appeal be made, 

 purely in the interests of society ? 



