Page:Philosophical Review Volume 14.djvu/524

508 The fundamental fact which meets us at the outset is that the life of the soul reveals itself as the operation of two opposing elements; it is, on the one hand, a mere continuation of the nature surrounding us, on the other, it shows new powers, ends, and forms which introduce us into a new kind of existence. Here the questions of the end of activity, of freedom within limitation, of the meaning of life, inevitably arise. In case we are not content with the mere recognition of these problems, it behooves us to recognize a new world of reality, of which man is from the beginning part and parcel, and in which he is able to realize, not an alien existence, but his own true being, to conceive a spiritual substance superior to temporal change, an eternal substance or self which imparts to temporal change its content and worth. The recognition of this eternal order over and opposed to this immediately given reality, yet present in it and touching it at every point, conditioning within it a 'new life,' is the very basis of religion. This view, however, which religion offers, while sublime and inspiring, does not offer a complete solution to the problems of imperfection, guilt, and sin; it rather affords an outlook toward an ideal than the conclusiveness and comfort of certainty. From these doubts religion emerges in its positive forms, where it appears not as a mere theory, but as a concrete and vitalizing power. The human spiritual life is not a mere product of growth from which there is no escape, but needs the cooperative activity of spirit at every point. It is, in one sense, a part and stage of the evolutionary process, yet, in another sense, essentially different from it. The difference between the lower stages and the highest stage are best shown as follows. The lowest stages of the evolutionary process are (1) the inorganic; (2) the organic, which cannot be fully explained by the mechanical laws governing the first; the highest stage of the organic is (3) the psychic, characterized by consciousness, conditioned by the former stages, yet representing itself as knowing the natural and as superior to it; (4) the specifically spiritual, which in its turn is conditioned by the psychic, but recognizes itself as superior to it. The characteristic mark of this stage is that its growth is not conditioned by the inevitable laws of nature, but that it is recognized as a possibility and a task to be achieved. Blind impulse gives place to conscious purpose. The end reveals itself as spiritual and consists in the recognition of an 'over world.' It gives unity to the whole process, which, though temporal, has the supra-historical, the eternal and divine, locked up within it. The evolutionary process is free, and can take place only through opposition; whence follow important consequences for the problems of theodicy.

The aim of this article is to show the inadequacy of both the hypothesis of plenism and the dominant atomic theory, when confronted by the demands of modern science, and to urge the reconstruction of atomism in