SYNTHESIS OF THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL 



my answer is that, if such should be the case, the whole 

 system of science breaks into fragments and all kuow^ledge 

 is vain — a contingency we need not here take into con- 

 sideration. Assuming then the unity of existence in which 

 man finds himself inseparably implicated, our question is, 

 what does this unity tell of its inner principle ? In other 

 words, what is the intrinsic character of the Energy which 

 is the same at every moment and point of the process, and 

 which gives the process its identity all through? 



{a) Observe first, in answ^er to this question, that 

 while the Energy and the process of nature are correlates 

 and never, in nature, apart, they are to be distinguished in 

 thought ; just as w^e distinguish between the creative 

 energy and the process of a speech. The speech, if speech 

 it be, is a unity in difference. Jt cannot be without energy 

 and process, but they are merely modes of a spiritual 

 monism, which sees the end from the beginning and which 

 moves from intention to fulfilment. So the process of the 

 speech of nature is the mode of the organism's creative 

 energy, and our question is : What is the nature of this 

 Energy ? Here we need to be wary and look before we 

 leap into speech. Let science guide us as far as it can show 

 the way. Science proper deals, however, with process 

 alone. It gives us, so far as its observations have gone, 

 a methodical expression of nature's movements, but the 

 question of nature's Energy it hands over to philosophy 

 and religion. It is true indeed that no great student of 

 nature has been able to quench his interest in the hidden 

 (hidden at least to empirical eyes) Force whose laws of 

 action he describes. Every one of them has sought a 

 solution. To Spencer it was the ultimate element behind 

 the vast and varied connectionalism, real, but ^'absolutely 

 inscrutable." To William James, of Harvard, its effects 

 are felt in consciousness, but in itself it dwells in the 

 subconscious realm and its nature can only be guessed at. 

 But when empirical science confines itself to its proper 



