452 METAPHYSICAL EVOLUTION". 



in human life are made. Since questions of right and wrong re- 

 late to the happiness of men in their relations to each other, the 

 social affections are the stronghold of the motives that bear on 

 this result. It is evident that a thousand subordinate motives 

 take their direction from the primary decisions between these two 

 original alternatives of feeling. 



It is true that the predication of human actions, necessitated 

 by bodily functions alone, is eas}^ even when' they come to be of 

 a highly complex character, as in the mercantile transaction of a 

 populous business center. But so soon as the ethical element 

 enters into the calculation the difficulty is greatly increased, and 

 with the majority of men predication ceases, and faith begins. 

 This is illustrated in the many credit transactions, without which 

 it is well known that trade on any but the most limited scale is 

 impossible. So it must be admitted that many men practice faith 

 in many affairs, and that this faith is chiefly reposed in the moral 

 excellence of other men. Under these circumstances, that state of 

 the affections arises in most men which is termed faith, and which 

 is only present in the highest form of progressive action, whether 

 the results of tliat action be beneficial or not. It is a condition of 

 the affections, as imagination is a condition of the intellect. The 

 lowest animal, when attempting a novel act in obedience to im- 

 perative stimuli, doubtless moves blindly, and adopts one of two 

 or more alternatives through pure accident. In animals of a 

 higher grade of intelligence, new situations are known to be such, 

 and fear or suspicion is the usual result. Generall}^, animals of the 

 higher orders do not adopt new habits excepting under severe press- 

 ure, and the majority of them have perished, in past geologic ages, 

 on account of their inability to assume new modes of life. Never- 

 theless, in so far as an animal or a man ventures into an unknown 

 field of action, where he is without the guidance of a past ex- 

 perience, he or it performs an act of trust in the broad meaning 

 of the word. So far as this state of mind is known to the subject, 

 the act is one of true faith in the restricted or proper sense of the 

 word. Imaginations may and do assume to men the importance of 

 truths, and in so far they are such to them. But in proportion 

 as this is the case, faith in its proper sense is wanting, and the 

 action following is automatic. The highest form of intellect is 

 necessary to the highest form of faith, since it is only by a knowl- 

 edge of the absence of knowledge that an act of faith is possible. 

 In proportion to this knowledge of self is faith enlarged ; in pro- 



