HE DOCTRINE OF THE UNKNOWABLE. 489 
is embraced under these two terms. The Subjective state has been defined 
as an active state, and the Objective state has been defined asa passive state. 
Hence the evolutionists have conceived the activity by which life is manifested to 
be the result of interaction between dynamic forces external to the living organism 
and static, or passive forces within; thus reducing manto a mere mechani- 
cal automaton, caused, manipulated and mollified by external forces, for 
the existence of which their philosophy can give no account. Now, the Sub- 
jective state is not an active state, but it 1s an acting state; the Objective, in re- 
lation toits own Subjective, is always passive, is always the recipient of acting 
power, and hence is always, within itself, in an active changing condition. The. 
Subjective state is one of constancy and unchange; the Objective is one of in- 
constancy and change. To illustrate:—Man, in his Subjective, acting state, 
has himself as the object of his activity; he may determine to become some- 
thing else than what he is—to become more learned, or more refined, or more 
moral; or he may determine to remove himself bodily from the place he is in to 
another. From his Subjective state proceeds, along with such determinations, 
the acting by which the result is to be brought about; and this acting, in reaching 
his Objective state, sets up the activity and change by which the determined 
result is realized. The Subjective aspect of man lies deep in his nature. It is 
revealed not directly and in itself but indirectly and in what it does. It is the 
soul: Thought, Will, Emotion, Imagination and Preception are its immediate 
manifestations and together with the physical body constitute the Objective As- 
pect. This is man’s primary Objective; Nature as Objective to him being so 
secondarily. 
Now to apply this doctrine and illustration to the infinite and absolute Being 
who we have seen is necessarily the sole Being in the universe. In its aspect 
as a stupendous whole, it presents the Subjective state, for, manifestly, a sole be- 
ing that fills all space cannot be conceived as a changeable aggregate, nor as Ob- 
jective to aught save itself, in respect to being made to act. It can be conceived 
only as eternally constant, eternally unchanged by any other. But in its aspect 
as Objective to itself, the acting proceeding from its Subjective aspect, produces a 
state of activity and continual change within itself. Hence arises the concrete, 
changing forms with which our observation and science make us so familiar. 
This Subjective, constant, acting aspect we call God; and this Objective, incon- 
stant, active changing state we call Nature. The 
—‘poor Indian, whose untutored mind, 
Sees God in the cloud and hears him in the wind.” 
has a great truth, which to formulate and explain, would make a modern philos- 
opher immortal. 
Thus we find that this conception of the Infinite and Absolute yields us, on 
the one hand, aconception of an acting constant immutable principle, which is 
the source of all the activity we see around us and which we call God. | The ac- 
tivity we see reveals to us the laws by which it proceeds, which are the express- 
