SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY AS A PHILOSOPHY. 329: 
an insatiable longing to resolve the mystery of the environment, to know what it 
is, from whence it came, what its destiny, and what the purpose of its being. 
The record man has preserved of himself in history recounts his efforts to 
resolve it and their results in mythology, theology and philosophy, each system 
of which has been partly accepted by one generation only to be rejected by 
another. Even anterior to the historic period, we find man had addressed him-. 
self to the same profound problem, for at the beginning of history he had his. 
beliefs in gods to whose agency he attributed it. ‘These beliefs stand for the net 
results of the efforts of pre-historic man ; for mythology, as well as theology, are 
of the same nature as philosophy in so far as they attempt to account for the 
phenomena of things. Mythology and theology, however, in all the innumera- 
ble forms in which they have been presented, have been found inadequate to: 
command universal acceptance, and to satisfy human longings. They begin by 
assuming gods, or a God, to whom the phenomena are due. ‘This only trans- 
fers the mystery, for with such an explanation, which does not explain the 
phenomena of nature or of man, he becomes as eager to know of the gods, or 
God, as he was to know of nature. Yet to this conclusion, that there is a 
supreme being, infinite and absolute, whether we call it gods or God, the condi- 
tions of human intelligence force it by an irresistible necessity, while the emotional 
nature equally presses to the same end for something supreme and immutable as an 
object worthy of worship. To explain this supreme being is the function ofephi- 
losophy and religion—the one revealing its aspects as related to nature, and the 
other as related to the moral aspects of man. 
To consider the necessity man feels of an adequate explanation, the unceas- 
ing struggle he has made to find one, and his repeated failures, is to be filled with. 
pity for his distressing situation and the misfortune that attends his struggles. As. 
the zenis fatuus lures the lost traveler into impenetrable darkness and mire,. 
nature leads man, bound by a spell he cannot break and lured by hopes it seems. 
he cannot realize, into the depths of impenetrable mystery. 
Mythology, having failed, has nearly vanished before the more definite forms 
and comprehensive scope and unity of theology. Theology, in offering no ex- 
planation of supreme being in itself and as related to nature, and only of its. 
relations to the moral aspects of man, is not adequate; and the explanations it. 
offers are distrusted by most, for how can relations be certainly explained and 
known until reality to which they relate is known? Philosophy, based upon the: 
necessary conditions of things, has been found inadequate in its most elaborate: 
and comprehensive forms, and does not satisfy. Hence the mystery remains. 
In this situation man has taken to the study of nature itself, hoping that by 
sitting as a little child humbly at her feet, and patiently learning the lessons she 
teaches, to find the desired solution. In this much progress has been made; all: 
ee 
departments of nature have been penetrated—astronomy, geology, chemistry, 
physics and naturalism in all their branches, and it is found that all teach the 
same lessons of infinite and immaculate laws, which reduce nature, with all its: 
