its individual being in terms of its Ideal. In short, it must be thought in terms of final cause alone. No mind can have an efficient relation to another mind; efficiency is the attribute of every mind toward its own acts and life, or toward the world of mere "things" which forms the theatre of its action; and the causal relation between minds must be that of ideality, simply and purely.
This is a religious truth so clearly fundamental that when once our attention is brought to it we cannot but give it assent. So far from denying it, we incline, rather, to say—and rightly—that we have in somewise always known it. Yet it is directly violated by our ordinary and sensuous theistic conceptions; and not until the pantheistic insight has been realised in our minds, whether by name or no it matters not,—realised even if transcended, and, indeed, only to be transcended,—do we clearly discover that this violation exists.[1]
V
But while this permanent insight of pantheism must be carried up into all genuine theistic thought, it is also true that in itself the insight falls fatally
- ↑ The preceding paragraphs have been much rewritten from the form in which they were (1885-6) originally printed, in order to remove the risk of misinterpretation in regard to the doctrine of "immanence." Cf. the foot-note to p. 60. See also The Conception of God, pp. 97-100, 114-132, especially 131-132.
