THE RELIGION OF PHILOSOPHY OR THE UNIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE: A COMPARISON OF THE CHIEF PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD MADE WITH A VIEW TO REDUCING THE CATEGORIES OF THOUGHT, OR THE NEW YORK-G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 AND 29 WEST 23D STREET LONDON-WILLIAMS & NORGATE R. M. PREFACE. THERE is a popular dictum among priests and philosophers that God, or the First Cause, is unknowable, and yet all religions aim to teach the nature of God, and all philosophies strive to define the First Cause. Here is a manifest contradiction; but the questions involved are of such magnitude and require so much study that, for the most part, it is allowed to pass unchallenged. The cultivated mind, whatever its antecedents, holds a judicial position. That is to say, the educated and thoughtful members of society are looked to, to pass impartial judgments upon questions concerning the general welfare. This impartiality is particularly necessary in philosophy, for thought is hedged about with prejudices, and almost every man represents some logical sect or school which he feels it his duty to support. The great obstacle which religion and philosophy alike encounter, in offering an explanation of the universe, is the difficulty of finding a symbol of divine power or unity. A symbol to have any real value must represent some fact, it must be the emblem of some experience. Otherwise it is a purely negative form of speech, a mere confession of igno rance. The symbol which philosophy proposes for divine unity has precisely the same meaning as that which religion offers. They are both emblems of mystery; they are both confessions of ignorance. In so far, therefore, as these two great spheres of knowledge, called philosophy and religion, have attempted an ultimate analysis of existence they have failed; the labor of both is incomplete. |