Page:The Conception of God (1897).djvu/152

Rh City of God — the Realm of Ends. This is presented as the goal toward which cosmic evolution is seen unmistakably to tend; and its reality is argued partly by induction, partly by appeal to that moral reason which would pronounce evolution futile, should its indicated goal not be fulfilled in an endless life whereby the self-activity only presaged here could be realised in the hereafter. This large reconciling office is what I suppose Dr. Le Conte to intend; and before taking our final look at the theory of Professor Royce, we must pause to see whether this attractive new scheme may not have supplanted it; or whether, perchance, this too is to prove disappointing.

I confess that by the lucid force of Dr. Le Conte’s reasonings, and the great beauty of his conclusions, I am constantly tempted to yield him my entire assent. It is only by the low murmurs of half-suppressed conviction, that I am roused from that state of fascination, to take up again the task of rigid thought. But if I may venture at all upon criticism of a thinker so justly distinguished, whose mind I sincerely revere, then I will say that the stability of his system depends, I think, on two things: (1) Whether it provides a sufficient proof that the Immanent Energy which is the cause of evolution is indeed a Cosmic Consciousness; (2) whether a Cosmic Consciousness, even if real, having — as it must have — the attribute of immanence in Nature, is compatible with the freedom and the personal immortality at which the system aims.

Regarding the first of these, I feel bound to say