150 TROUT FISHING 



is called anthropomorphic. It attributed 

 to the First Cause the character of man. 

 Now the dominant philosophy is at the 

 other extreme. It affirms that the 

 utmost efforts of man, in his limited 

 processes of cognition, leave the First 

 Cause unknowable. Thus it would 

 appear that our philosophy has under- 

 gone a complete revolution. Has it 

 really ? I think that the appearance is 

 deceitful. As far as philosophy is con- 

 cerned, there is very little difference 

 between the assumption that the First 

 Cause is the prototype of man and the 

 apprehension that the character of the 

 First Cause is unknowable. In both 

 cases we are presented with affirmations 

 about the First Cause ; both affirma- 

 tions come from developments of the 

 human understanding ; both are crops of 

 belief on the gray matter of similar brains, 

 cultivated differently. Each, that is to 

 say, is the human understanding egoistic, 

 asserting itself, controversial ; and arguing 

 with the same means from precisely the 



