THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY AN ORGANON OF THE SCIENCES. 651 
makes Absolute Being the ultimate principle of philosophy; the only difference 
being that while they ascribe to this Ultimate Power personal attributes, he regards 
this as unknowable, and hence as not admitting of the predication of such attri- 
butes. He says: ‘All philosophers avowedly or tacitly recognize this same 
ultimate truth :—that while the Relativist rightly repudiates these definite asser- 
tions which the Absolute makes respecting existence transcending perception, he 
is yet at least compelled to unite with him in predicating existence transcending 
perception.” While regarding Absolute Being as only indefinitely apprehended 
by consciousness, its existence is with him none the less certain. He says: ‘‘The 
existence of this inscrutable Power is the most certain of all truths.” 
In developing his comprehensive system of philosophy, it devolved upon Mr. 
Spencer, at the outset, to define what he regards as the true scope of philosophy. 
Regarding philosophy as a synthesis of the most general truths of science, while 
science itself deals solely with proximate, not ultimate causes, it follows that the 
findings of philosophy from his stdnd-point are confined to the sphere of such 
causes as are manifested in the uniformities of cosmical phenomena. Hence, the 
Synthetic Philosophy does not, like the German Philosophy, enter the sphere of 
Ontology, and attempt to explain the mysteries of Absolute Being. Regarding 
such a task as beyond the powers of the human mind, it confines itself to the 
sphere of the finite and relative. It attempts through the law of Evolution to 
unify the various orders of cosmic phenomena—to show how the different sci- 
ences, such as astronomy, geology, biology, psychology and sociology, can be 
logically articulated into a single harmonious and consistent body of established 
truth through one fundamental and all-pervading law or principle. Hence, the 
merits of this philosophy must be judged solely by its success in bringing within 
this comprehensive synthesis all the various ranks and orders of cosmic phenom- 
ena. Mr. Spencer terms his system the Synthetic Philosophy for the reason that 
its great organizing law is Evolution, within the comprehensive synthesis of which 
all cosmic phenomena find their unity and explanation. Prof. Fiske, the able 
expounder of this system, prefers the term Cosmuc, for the reason that it distin- 
guishes this system from those ontological forms of philosophy which treat of 
Absolute Being. Any one is at liberty to raise with Mr. Spencer an issue regard- 
ing the possibility of constructing an Ontology; but this would be a psychological 
question concerning the powers of the human mind. Such a question would no 
more involve either the truth or the untruth of the evolution philosophy than the 
old question concerning the nature of gravitation—whether it is due to action ata 
distance or to ethereal pressure, involves the truth of the Newtonian system of 
astronomy. Modern astronomy rests on the /vuth of gravitation as the great law 
of space, and not on any theory concerning its ultimate nature. In like manner, 
Evolution as the great law of time, rests on the persistence or indestructibility of 
force, regardless of any theory we may hold concerning the nature of Absolute 
Being, of which force and motion are to us but the sensible symbols. We may 
agree with Mr. Spencer in denying that personal attributes can be predicated of 
