of one of your number, and one of my former teachers, whose lectures and whose counsel were to me, in my student days, especially a source of light, of guidance, and of inspiration. This teacher it was, I may say, who first set before me, in living presence, the ideal, still to me so remote, of the work of the thinker; and whenever since, in my halting way, I have tried to think about central problems, I have remembered that ideal of my undergraduate days, — that light and guidance and inspiration, — and the beloved teacher too, whose living presence in those days meant the embodiment of all these things. It is a peculiar delight, ladies and gentlemen, — a wholly undeserved boon, — to have this opportunity to come face to face, in your presence, with Professor Le Conte, and to talk with you, and with him, of questions that are indeed often called vexed questions, but that he first of all taught me to regard with the calmer piety and gentleness of the serious reason.
I
GOD AS THE OMNISCIENT BEING, AND OMNISCIENCE AS ABSOLUTE UNITY OF THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE
I have been asked to address the Philosophical Union upon some aspects of the problem of Theism. During the past year the Union has been devoting a very kind attention to a volume entitled The Religious Aspect of Philosophy, which I printed more than ten years ago. Were there time, I should be glad indeed if I were able to throw any direct light either
