THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 237 



Emperor of China. No other conception of God 

 except this that sees his spirit and force in all 

 natural phenomena is worthy of his all-enfolding 

 greatness ; only when we trace all forces and all 

 movements, all the forms and properties of matter, 

 to God, as the sustainer of all things, do we reach 

 the human idea and reverence for him that really 

 corresponds to his infinite greatness. In him we 

 live, and move, and have our being. Thus does 

 natural philosophy become a theology. The cult 

 of nature passes into that service of God of which 

 Goethe says : ' Assuredly there is no nobler rever- 

 ence for God than that springs up in our heart 

 from conversation with nature.' God is almighty : 

 he is the sole sustainer and cause of all things. In 

 other words, God is the universal law of causality. 

 God is absolutely perfect ; he cannot act in any 

 other than a perfectly good manner ; he cannot 

 therefore act arbitrarily or freely — God is necessity. 

 God is the sum of all force, and therefore of all 

 matter. Every conception of God that separates 

 him from matter, and opposes to him a sum of 

 forces that are not of a divine nature, leads to 

 amphitheism (or ditheism) and on to polytheism. 

 In showing the unity of the whole of nature, 

 Monism points out that only one God exists, and 

 that this God reveals himself in all the phenomena 

 of nature. In grounding all the phenomena of 

 organic or inorganic nature on the universal law 

 of causality, and exhibiting them as the outcome of 

 ' efficient causes,' Monism proves that God is the 

 necessary cause of all things and the law itself. In 



