with those foreshadowings and beginnings of similar phenomena which we find in animals most nearly approaching him. Evolution is not only a scientific theory; it is not only a philosophy; it is a great scientific method, transforming every department of thought. Every subject must be studied anew in its light. The grounds of belief in immortality must be thus studied anew. It is well known that I have striven earnestly to make such a study. I know that many think that this method of study destroys those grounds completely and forever; but I also know that those who think so take a very superficial view of evolution and of man. At the risk of tediousness, I will bring forward, once more, an outline of my view, but in a different way, which I hope will be understood readily by those who have followed my previous writings.
I assume, then, the immanence of Deity in Nature. Furthermore, as you already know, I regard physical and chemical forces, or the forces of dead Nature, as a portion of the omnipresent Divine Energy in a diffused, unindividuated state, and therefore not self-active but having its phenomena determined directly by the Divine Energy. Individuation of this Energy, i.e. self-activity, begins, as I suppose, with Life, and proceeds, pari passu with organisation of matter, to complete itself as a Moral Person in man. Mr. Upton,[1] in his Hibbert Lectures, given in 1893, takes a similar view, except that he makes all force — even physical force — in some degree self-active; and
- ↑ C. B. Upton: Bases of Religious Belief. Hibbert Lectures for 1893. London: Williams and Norgate, 1894.
