This is the course to which Mr. Spencer urges
us; and if philosophy were purely retrospective, he would thereby
proclaim himself an excellent pragmatist.
But philosophy is prospective also, and, after finding what the
world has been and done and yielded, still asks the further question
'what does the world PROMISE?' Give us a matter that promises
SUCCESS, that is bound by its laws to lead our world ever nearer to
perfection, and any rational man will worship that matter as readily
as Mr. Spencer worships his own so-called unknowable power. It not
only has made for righteousness up to date, but it will make for
righteousness forever; and that is all we need. Doing practically
all that a God can do, it is equivalent to God, its function is a
God's function, and is exerted in a world in which a God would now
be superfluous; from such a world a God could never lawfully be
missed. 'Cosmic emotion' would here be the right name for religion.
But is the matter by which Mr. Spencer's process of cosmic evolution
is carried on any such principle of never-ending perfection as this?
Indeed it is not, for the future end of every cosmically evolved
thing or system of things is foretold by science to be death and
tragedy; and Mr.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96