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Thesis : The energy concept : a spiritual 
 interpretation of reality 
 
 Submitted by Lewis Guy Rohrbaugh 
 as partial fulfillment of the require- 
 ments for the Ph. D. degree at the 
 State University of Iowa 
 

 LIBRARY OF rONC'^S? 
 
 APR 1 6 192b 
 
 i DOCUMENTS DIVISION 
 
 'l iMiia n i ■ ■ i mm' i m um. -«. ■ 
 
Part I: DYNAMICS IN SCIENCE AND 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 ENERGY AS REALITY 
 
 Upon all sides to-day we hear emphasis put upon 
 the energy concept in philosophy. Dynamism has super- 
 seded materialism. Activism, voluntarism, pragma- 
 tism, and philosophies of this active type are coming 
 more and more to take the place of the older systems 
 of mechanism. Students in philosophy are compelled 
 to recognize the significant place which such systems 
 as those of Leibnitz, Bergson, Ostwald, etc., are hold- 
 ing in the field of modern thought. If Leibnitz' phi- 
 losophy were to be re-stated to-day from the stand- 
 point of modern scientific thought and terminology, it 
 would probably be termed a system of Energism. 
 With Bergson life is one continuous process of Becom- 
 ing, and fundamental in this process is the guiding 
 agent which he calls the vital impetus. So active and 
 vital is this inner principle that it would seem impos- 
 sible to think of Bergson's philosophy out of relation 
 to the energy concept. With Ostwald, energy is the 
 primary concept; everything that exists is but a part 
 of a great system of energies. Such energetic concep- 
 tions as these sound the keynote to modern philosophi- 
 
 15 
 
16 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 cal thought and receive genuine support from recent 
 scientific discoveries. 
 
 In physical science we are told that matter, under 
 the scrutiny of experimental physics, has resolved it- 
 self into energy. When asked what this ultimate and 
 final energy is, we are sometimes referred to another 
 concept, that of electricity. And inasmuch as we shall 
 endeavor to interpret reality in terms of energy and 
 make a critical inquiry into the energy concept in its 
 qualitative aspects, it becomes imperative therefore at 
 this stage of philosophical inquiry to examine into this 
 concept of energy and determine, if we can, its philoso- 
 phical import. 
 
 Philosophers have been concerned with the problem 
 of reality since the earliest history of thought, and to 
 the question, What is reality ? many and varied answers 
 have been given. We find that in the approach to this 
 problem the scientific understanding of the ancients 
 presents an interesting contrast with that of to-day. 
 Instead of the four elements of Empedocles — earth, 
 air, fire, and water — more than ninety elements have 
 been found, entering into the make-up of the earth and 
 all existing objects. "The spectroscope tells us that in 
 the most distant stars the same elements exist as here, 
 and that the periods of vibrations which cause them 
 to emit light are identical with those of their terrestrial 
 representatives.' ' All material things can be analyzed 
 and resolved into these ninety elements. 
 
 In the philosophy of the early days we meet two 
 opposing schools of thought — one teaching that every- 
 thing is and nothing becomes; the other declaring that 
 nothing is and everything is in a process of becoming. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 17 
 
 Heracleitus, representing the latter school, believed all 
 things to be in a state of flux; there is no such thing 
 as rest. In this he anticipated a fundamental principle 
 in modern science, for science to-day holds that matter 
 is made up of a countless number of moving particles. 
 In the decomposition and changes peculiar to inorganic 
 matter, and in the myriads of living cells composing 
 organic matter we find that there are no two successive 
 moments when any single particle of substance fails to 
 experience some genuine change. 
 
 BRIEF STATEMENT CONCERNING THE ATOMIC THEORY 
 
 As we proceed with our task it becomes evident that 
 a study of the atomic theory, which has to do with the 
 organization of these little moving particles, is funda- 
 mental to any treatment which might be made of matter 
 and any search for facts which have to do with ulti- 
 mate reality. It is a long road, however, from Demo- 
 critus, the first real exponent of Atomism, to the 
 present time, and many and varied have been the 
 interpretations made of this system along the 
 way. 
 
 With Democritus the atom is simply a hard little 
 body moving mechanically through space. The atoms 
 coming together are responsible for all changes. By 
 this method in his system of materialism he would en- 
 deavor to explain all phenomena, from the most simple 
 external occurrences to the deepest experiences of the 
 mental life. 
 
 A new light was thrown on the atomic theory when 
 Newton's law of gravitation took its place in the world 
 
18 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 of science. Instead of the atoms clashing at random 
 and being held together in a chance way by means of 
 their jagged surfaces, the element of attraction was 
 introduced. "It was natural that, having explained 
 the cosmical, and subsequently many terrestrial phe- 
 nomena, successfully by the formula of attraction, 
 Newton himself, and still more Laplace and his school, 
 should have attempted the explanation of molecular 
 phenomena by similar methods. The astronomical 
 view spread into molecular physics. Newton himself 
 made use of the notion of molecular attraction — i.e., 
 of attraction existing only at very small distances — to 
 explain the refraction and inflection of light passing 
 from empty space, or from the atmosphere, into or in 
 the neighborhood of solid bodies." 1 
 
 Boscovich was among the first to lose faith in a de- 
 pendence on the impact of the atoms; nor could he be 
 satisfied with allowing them extension. He felt that 
 the fundamental essence of matter was to be found in 
 atom points, situated in space, from which, as a basis, 
 repulsive forces operated. 
 
 Dalton, who gave to each atom a definite weight, 
 was responsible for the establishment of the atomic 
 theory of the modern day. He taught that the small 
 particles in all bodies are held together by an attractive 
 force, and that there is also present and operating in 
 matter a repulsive force. This introducing into the 
 theory the element of forces was carried even further 
 by such men as Fechner, Moigno, and Faraday, who 
 would make the atoms simple centers of force, which 
 
 1 Merz, History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, Vol. i, pp. 354-356. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 19 
 
 closely approaches a system of dynamism and paves 
 the way to the energy concept. 
 
 In the analysis of substance according to the atomic 
 theory, the smallest unit we meet is the molecule which 
 can be further divided into atoms. In HN0 3 we have 
 a molecule of nitric acid, containing one atom of hydro- 
 gen, one of nitrogen, and three of oxygen. The mole- 
 cules differ according to the number of atoms consti- 
 tuting them. The atoms of the same element have 
 been considered invariable in size, having a definite 
 and fixed weight. It is believed to-day, however, that 
 the so-called atomic weights are merely averages. 
 Radium, thorium, and uranium have the heaviest atoms 
 and hydrogen the lightest. "We are as certain of the 
 existence of these atoms and of their uniformity and 
 invariability as if we could count and measure them. 
 Indeed they are actually counted in certain cases of 
 radioactivity." 2 
 
 THE ELECTRONIC THEORY 
 
 The atomic theory has been a very profitable instru- 
 ment in the hands of science for a long time, but ac- 
 quired knowledge now enables us to make an analysis 
 of Nature which transcends the limitations of the atom. 
 Just as the molecule of substance was divided and the 
 atom made the smallest measure of matter, so the 
 atom to-day is analyzed and found to be composed of 
 still smaller particles. 
 
 One of the most remarkable pieces of work accom- 
 plished by science in recent years has been this success- 
 
 2 Soddy, Matter and Energy, p. 55. 
 
20 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ful analysis of the atom. As the smallest unit of mat- 
 ter entering into the make-up of the elements, the atom 
 has lost its prestige, and science to-day is thinking in 
 terms of the electron instead. It is the development of 
 the electronic theory which has not only popularized 
 the energy concept but given it a well established place 
 in modern scientific discovery and thought. It has 
 confirmed the long-held belief in the presence of a 
 dynamic force in Nature, and seems to show that ulti- 
 mate reality itself is identical with what science has 
 been calling electricity, but now looks upon as some 
 form of energy. 
 
 According to Rutherford each atom is believed to 
 be like a little solar system, being composed wholly of 
 charges of negative electricity, electrons, revolving "in 
 regular orbits" 3 about a core or nucleus which is a 
 charge of positive electricity. More recent thought, 
 however, is inclined to believe that the electrons are 
 vibrating in certain regions, rather than revolving 
 about a nucleus, within the atom. Motion results as 
 the electrons repel each other and in their activities 
 they are held in balance by the attraction of the posi- 
 tive unit. It is thought that the negative charges are 
 equal to the free positive charge of the nucleus and in 
 this fact the atom realizes a possible equilibrium. 
 
 Some writers consider the electron to be a unit of 
 electricity whether negative or positive. For our pres- 
 ent purpose we shall call only the unit of negative 
 charge an electron. The electrons of the atom are all 
 the same, no matter from whatever element's atoms 
 they come. They are constituents of every atom, are 
 
 3 Gibson, Scientific Ideas of To-day, p. 53. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 21 
 
 real electricity, which flowing, constitute electric cur- 
 rent. 
 
 Concerning the nucleus of the atom, science does not 
 have full knowledge. We are sure, however, that it is 
 electricity and predominantly positive. In this nucleus 
 have been found electrons which under certain condi- 
 tions are set free. This core or positive charge is less 
 than one ten thousandth the diameter of the atom and 
 numerically equal to one half the atomic weight, 4 
 while "the whole atom is perhaps one hundred thou- 
 sand times as large in diameter as the electrons." 5 
 
 The velocity of the electrons in their flight is almost 
 inconceivable; thus they occupy but small space and 
 constitute a solid. The immense possible velocity is 
 suggested in the statement that "the velocity of the 
 electron when impelled by strong electric force may 
 reach sixty thousand miles per second when shot 
 through a vacuum, the better the vacuum the higher 
 the speed." e 
 
 Under certain conditions atoms gain and lose elec- 
 trons. Sometimes the negative charges predominate 
 and sometimes the positive, according to whether the 
 atom has taken on or given off electrons. Some ele- 
 ments will give up electrons quicker than others. The 
 stronger a metal, the stronger the tendency to give 
 up electrons when exposed to the impact of light. The 
 latest theory of color is based on the principle of the 
 looseness of the electrons in the atom. The weight it- 
 self of an element is determined by the electrons. 
 Thompson says "the atomic weight of an element is 
 
 4 Stewart, The Homiletic Review, Oct., 1914. 
 
 5 Mills, The Realities of Modern Science, p. 90. 
 
 6 Gibson, Scientific Ideas of To-day. 
 
22 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 proportionate to the number of electrons contained in 
 the atoms," So in hydrogen, the lightest atom, we 
 find but one electron and in uranium, the heaviest 
 known atom, there are ninety-two. To-day then, sci- 
 ence does not have to stop with the atom, but can take 
 that more ultimate particle, the electron, as a work- 
 ing basis. 
 
 This brings us safely to the place of assumption that 
 electricity is a common, pervading factor peculiar to 
 the finest particles in all matter, and the electron as a 
 unit of energy presents itself as a general medium of 
 permeation running through all forms of material exis- 
 tence, animate and inanimate. This is given partial 
 confirmation in the fact that electrical excitation can 
 very often get definite responses from animals, plants, 
 and inorganic substances. "The everyday laboratory 
 faith of the physicist is now not in visible material as 
 formerly understood, but in the invisible thing we call 
 electricity. He has repudiated the atom as a unit, ob- 
 serving in it a wonderful and complex system of un- 
 ending interest and great experimental possibilities, 
 and has accepted the atom of electricity as the basis 
 for his scientific belief. . . . The reality of matter, as 
 formerly conceived, is now abandoned, and the invisi- 
 ble becomes the everyday reality of the scientific 
 laboratory." 7 
 
 As we now come face to face with Nature in its ul- 
 timate analysis, reality itself, we come face to face with 
 what, in commercial as well as scientific language, has 
 been called electricity. In this we foresee meanings 
 
 7 Stewart, The Homiletic Review, Oct., 1914. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 23 
 
 and possibilities more far-reaching than was ever 
 dreamed. And in dealing with this dynamic some- 
 thing, science is not willing any longer to talk in terms 
 of what has been known as the electricity concept but 
 endeavors to broaden and deepen its hold on truth and 
 proceeds in this field of inquiry in the name of the 
 energy concept. 
 
 THE ENERGY CONCEPT AND COSMIC EVOLUTION 
 
 A' study of cosmic evolution confirms the belief that 
 there is and has been an all-prevailing something more 
 fundamental than electricity, which something is 
 energy, and which is manifesting itself to-day as elec- 
 tricity. When we find, the dynamic conception of real- 
 ity prevailing in much of the best philosophy of all 
 ages, in modern psychology, and even in to-day's phil- 
 osophy of life, it is not strange that in its progress 
 toward ultimate truth modern science should be con- 
 firming this interpretation by its strong and positive 
 representation of the concept of energy. It seems nec- 
 essary then for us to "reverse our thought in the search 
 for causes and take steps toward an energy conception 
 of the origin of life and energy conception of the na- 
 ture of heredity." 8 
 
 As intimated in the foregoing, the history of the 
 earth's evolution is fundamentally the history of the 
 changes in forms of energy. Four of these have pri- 
 marily manifested themselves in this process of cosmic 
 development — heat, light, chemical affinity, and elec- 
 tricity. According to MacFarlane, 9 in the very primi- 
 
 8 Osborn, The Origin and Evolution of Life, p. 10. 
 
 9 MacFarlane, The Causes and Course of Organic Evolution. 
 
24 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 tive state of the earth when everything was in a nebu- 
 lous 10 state, energy manifested itself as heat. The in- 
 tensity of the heat must have been extreme "in this 
 gaseous state of the earth and according to Arldt a 
 temperature of at least 15000c may have existed." 11 
 Associated with the intense heat was a corresponding 
 rapidity in the motion of the constituents of this fiery 
 mass; and in the development from this gaseous state 
 the degree of motion of these particles increased, pro- 
 portionate to the condensation of heat which took 
 place. Here then in the condensation of heat energy 
 we meet with motion and its cause as first experienced 
 in the cosmic order. 
 
 In the gradual change from the gaseous to the liquid 
 state, instead of energy primarily manifesting itself as 
 heat, it began to assert itself as light. Then, as the 
 energy continued its condensation, with an increased 
 activity and higher degree of organization of the atoms 
 we find that energy expressed itself as "chemical af- 
 finity." Thus as the earth progressed in its cooling 
 process, associated with which was a definite progress 
 in the organization of the centers of energy, bodies 
 began to come into definite forms, of existence, reach- 
 ing the highest and best condition in the solid state 
 when energy expressed itself primarily as electricity. 
 Thus when we study the transformation of energy 
 
 10 In suggesting this program we are fully aware that science 
 in America, especially geology and biology, is giving precedence 
 to the Planetesimal Hypothesis as over against the Nebular 
 Hypothesis. But even so, this does not at all controvert our 
 theory as to the part energy has played in the process of cosmic 
 evolution. 
 
 11 MacFarlane, The Causes and Course, of Organic Evolution, 
 p. 21, passim. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 25 
 
 through the gaseous, liquid, and solid states, from 
 original heat and light to electricity, we are not sur- 
 prised to see electricity quickly and easily taking the 
 forms of heat and light, harmonizing somewhat with 
 Fanvell's view that electricity is a "highly condensed 
 or latent heat." As Osborn would say, it is but the 
 old forms of energy taking new directions. 
 
 According to our hypothesis then, in the ultimate 
 analysis of all things we meet energy. In it wonder- 
 ful possibilities and potentialities are to be found. It 
 is the Alpha and Omega of all forms of existence, the 
 different bodies being but different expressions of the 
 same thing. Haeckel confirms this in saying that 
 "mechanical and chemical energy, sound and heat, light 
 and electricity are mutually convertible; they seem to 
 be but different modes of one and the same funda- 
 mental force or energy. 12 That energy is a common 
 principle underlying all existence, organic and inor- 
 ganic, is also supported by Osborn: "No form of 
 energy has thus far been discovered in living sub- 
 stances which is peculiar to them and not derived from 
 the inorganic world." 13 "Thus the evolution of life 
 may be written in terms of invisible energy as it has 
 long since been written in terms of visible forms." 14 
 
 HE ENERGY CONCEPT AND THE UNITY OF NATURE 
 
 In the unity of Nature we have a situation which 
 seemingly is best explained by the presence of some 
 
 12 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 254. (Translated by 
 McCabe.) 
 
 13 Osborn, The Origin and Evolution of Life, p. 12. 
 14: Ibid., p. 17. 
 
26 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 universal, dynamic essence such as energy; and the 
 more progress we make in our understanding of Na- 
 ture the more we are impressed with the harmonious 
 interactions and relationships existing between Na- 
 ture's constituents. Marvin feels that if we could see 
 Nature through perfect eyes all seeming discords 
 would disappear. He says "the doctrine of evolution 
 has made the forms of animal and plant life, the insti- 
 tutions, customs, and languages and arts of different 
 peoples all seem but different chapters in one connected 
 story of earthly life. In short, increased knowledge 
 reveals increased interconnection and complete knowl- 
 edge would reveal complete interconnection." 15 Since 
 organic and inorganic bodies are composed of the same 
 ingredients, all coming from the same elements, it is 
 very natural to look upon the world as one great uni- 
 tary whole. 
 
 Tagore, the poet-philosopher of India, protests 
 against the idea that certain parts of Nature are set 
 off from the rest. He advocates a real unity of Nature 
 in saying that "in the west the prevalent feeling is that 
 Nature belongs exclusively to inanimate things and 
 to beasts, that there is a sudden, unaccountable break 
 where human nature begins. According to it, every- 
 thing that is law in the scale of beings is merely Na- 
 ture, and whatever has the stamp of perfection on it, 
 intellectual or moral, is human nature. It is like di- 
 viding the bud and the blossom into two separate 
 categories and putting their grace to the credit of two 
 different and antithetical principles." 16 
 
 15 Marvin, A First Book in Metaphysics, p. 92. 
 
 16 Tagore, Sadhana — The Realization of Life, pp. 6-7. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 27 
 
 Not only no man liveth unto himself, but no thing 
 liveth unto itself. There is a common chord running 
 through all life. The interests of all forms of exist- 
 ing life are mutual. The tender, sympathetic strain 
 common to all life is necessarily based upon a reciproc- 
 ity in relationships. 
 
 Even between the lower animals and man a tender 
 understanding is often experienced, and in many cases 
 the responses obtained from them are almost incredi- 
 ble. The pipe organ not only thrills us as human be- 
 ings but gets a sympathetic response from inanimate 
 objects as well. We love to commune with Nature 
 but the reality of this experience would vanish if we 
 should try to make it a one-sided affair on our part. 
 Being human we best understand man's feelings in re- 
 lation to other existing things but that does not say 
 that he contributes more than his proportionate share 
 of appreciation to the unity and harmony of Nature. 
 In this fact of mutual relationships there must be some 
 element of reality upon which these interactions can 
 ride back and forth. We find this principle of reality 
 in energy into which man and beast and clod can be 
 resolved. 
 
 Behind this attitude modern thought seems to be 
 arraying itself. De Tunzelmann says "the observed 
 correlation of mental and material phenomena defin- 
 itely demonstrates the power of the human mind and 
 the minds of other living beings, to influence and be 
 influenced by, changes in the distribution of energy in 
 their material environment." 17 
 
 17 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
 Universe, p. 471. 
 
28 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Some would go so far as to say "physical and psych- 
 ical processes depend so on one another that it is pos- 
 sible to find in energy not only a possible unifying of 
 Nature but an occasion for an efficient and moving 
 cause." Energy seems to be established as the funda- 
 mental means of interaction and relationship between 
 mind and matter, mind and mind, and matter and mat- 
 ter. Perry would get to the heart of the whole ques- 
 tion and says: "Instead of conceiving a matter that 
 manifests itself in forms and motions, why not stop 
 at force and invest it with finality and universality ?" 18 
 
 Perhaps de Tunzelmann comes out strongest in 
 championing the cause of energy as the ultimate basic 
 element in all matter. He says we cannot conceive of 
 a substance from which the uniform distribution of 
 energy has been abstracted. Its very life would be 
 taken away if the energy element were eliminated. He 
 seems to sum up his attitude in saying, "All the phe- 
 nomena of the material universe may therefore be con- 
 sidered as arising solely from changes in energy dis- 
 tribution. That is to say, energy is the sole ultimate 
 phenomenal basis of matter." 19 
 
 It is very evident then that in recent years a great 
 change has taken place in the field of science due to the 
 development of the electronic theory of matter. In 
 fact, we have come to that place where it can be said 
 that "the old concept of stuff has been completely dis- 
 placed by the new concept of radiant energy." 20 Thus 
 it seems that the old scientist-philosophers, some of 
 
 18 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 70. 
 
 19 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
 Universe, p. 470. 
 
 20 Carr, Preface to Bergson's Mind-Energy, p. vi. 
 
ENERGY AS REALITY 29 
 
 whose systems we shall review in the next chapter, in 
 teaching the presence in matter of a dynamic element, 
 were feeling after the real truth in the situation. For 
 modern science not only confirms this attitude but, as 
 has been suggested, goes still further, and by satisfac- 
 tory experiments has come to the conclusion that 
 "there is no difference between matter and energy" 21 
 and that the world in its ultimate essence, reality itself '; 
 is energy. 
 
 21 Wendt, Lectures. 
 
Chapter II 
 
 THE DYNAMIC TREND IN THE HISTORY OF 
 THOUGHT 
 
 As suggested in our first chapter the dynamic con- 
 ception of the world is not at all new, and the attitude 
 of modern science toward the energy concept has a 
 strong background of support in the energetic concep- 
 tion of reality so evident in the history of thought. 
 We shall now undertake as our immediate task to pass 
 in review those thinkers, ancient and modern, who 
 have dwelt upon the dynamic aspect of reality. 
 
 $Y2I2 
 
 The men of the early Ionian school were the first 
 to try to get into the heart of Nature and find out 
 what is the abiding element in all changing things — 
 that common substance from which all things come 
 and into which they pass. 1 To understand the teach- 
 ing of these early Greek thinkers it is necessary to 
 understand the meaning of cpvcnz as used by them, for 
 this seems to constitute the source and backbone of | 
 their philosophy. 
 
 In the philosophy of these writers we find cpvau 
 (Physis) to be a fiery, living, moving, ultimate essence 
 permeating all things. From it, which knows no be- 
 
 1 Bakewell's Source Book in Philosophy, p. I. 
 
 30 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 31 
 
 ginning or end, through the media of water, air, and 
 fire, by means of its own self-activity, have come all 
 things, souls, gods, the world itself. $vGzg then, the 
 substratum and essence of all bodies, 2 is a vitalistic, 
 self -producing element from whose eternal mobility 
 and life all existing forms receive impulses to activity, 
 as it constantly plays the role of an urging, guiding, 
 and determining factor. To Anaximander have been 
 ascribed these words: "dddvarov ydp uai dvGoXedpov 
 7tepiex eiv G07tavra xai 7idvra Hvfieprav ." 3 This ulti- 
 mate essence then is not only living and free but also 
 divine. 
 
 HYLOZOISM 
 
 The first philosophy which will be taken up is that 
 of the hylozoists as represented by Thales, Anaxi- 
 mander, Anaximenes, and Heracleitus, in which is 
 prominent the idea that the whole world is a living 
 being and that all matter is moving; living matter and 
 moving matter being identical. All material elements 
 of Nature are related in a common life. In this system 
 we find evinced the belief that the universe is animated 
 by an inner, fiery, vital principle which operates as a 
 qualitatively psychic factor. This conception of an 
 inner, moving principle of unity appears early among 
 Greek thinkers, and naturally the question arose, what 
 matter is most moving, most alive ? What is this ulti- 
 mate reality which affords a basis for all moving and 
 
 2 Veazie, Studies in the History of Ideas, Ch. II, passim. 
 
 3 "Immortal and indestructible, surrounds all and directs all." 
 (Fairbanks, The First Philosophers of Greece, pp. 8-9.) 
 
32 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 changing, and which continues to exist after the 
 changes occur? 
 
 In answer to this question Thales replied that it was 
 water, seeing that moisture was very essential in animal 
 and vegetable life; also perceiving it to be very subtle 
 and versatile, appearing in the forms of a solid, liquid, 
 and vapor. He felt that the plasticity of matter fur- 
 nished the possibility for everything to change, through 
 water as the medium; all things have their origin in 
 water and go back into water again. The active vi- 
 tality of matter so impressed Thales that he taught the 
 existence of a world soul, and that a divine mind was 
 constantly at work. He would say according to Aris- 
 totle: "All things are full of gods. The magnet is 
 alive; for it has the power of moving iron." 4 Thales' 
 water, "the soul substance, possesses a superhuman 
 mana, a daemonic energy distinct from the natural 
 properties of the water." 5 
 
 Plato quotes Thales as saying: "Is there any one 
 who acknowledges this and yet holds that all things are 
 not full of gods?" "Its motion and its power of 
 generating things other than itself are due to its life 
 (ipvxrf), an inward, spontaneous principle of activ- 
 ity." 6 Thus in the hylozoism of Thales we have a 
 dynamic conception of Nature which is inseparable 
 from the modern energy concept. 
 
 Anaximander also was keenly conscious of the pres- 
 ence of an unlimited, active, vital force in matter, but 
 
 4 Quoted from Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, p. 48. 
 
 5 Quoted from Cornford's From Religion to Philosophy, p. 135. 
 « Ibid., p. 128. 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 33 
 
 he did not give it the name of an element such as water. 
 He called his the Unlimited or Infinite which is not 
 only unlimited and infinite but is "without beginning, 
 indestructible and immortal. ,, This dynamic, inner life 
 surging through matter is endowed by Anaximander 
 with the possibility of "encompassing and guiding all 
 things." We find Theophrastus saying that "Anaxi- 
 mander . . . said that the material cause and first ele- 
 ment of things was the Infinite, he being the first to 
 introduce this name for the material cause. He says 
 it is neither water nor any other of the so-called ele- 
 ments, but a substance different from them which is 
 infinite, from which arise all the heavens and all the 
 worlds within them. . . . He says that this is eternal 
 and ageless and that it encompasses all the worlds . . . 
 and besides this there was an eternal motion, in the 
 course of which was brought about the origin of the 
 worlds." 7 
 
 Anaximenes, continuing the same dynamic trend of 
 thought, said that air, with an inner vitality and force 
 peculiar to itself, was the underlying and pervading 
 principle in everything. Air is continually in motion 
 and has the same relation to the world as man's soul 
 has to his body. According to Theophrastus, Anaxi- 
 menes says : "Just as our soul, being air, holds us to- 
 gether, so do breath and air encompass the whole 
 world." 
 
 7 Quoted from Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, pp. 54-55. 
 
34 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 HERACLEITUS 
 
 In Heracleitus also we meet with a remarkable antic- 
 ipation of the modern energetic attitude toward real- 
 ity. In his philosophy he reaches forward to a funda- 
 mental principle in modern science, teaching that every- 
 thing moves; everything is in a state of flux. Noth- 
 ing abides; all things in Nature are changing into one 
 another — are in a constant process of becoming. He 
 called his primary cosmic substance, fire. It is not 
 what we mean by ordinary fire but a something which 
 changes into all things and into which all things can 
 be transformed. It so permeates the last iota of all 
 substance that in all matter there is the "ever-living 
 fire." These changing processes, which are expres- 
 sions of a restless vitality, are fateful, rational 
 and just. Thus the world is explained in terms 
 of a cosmic substance, a transforming force, fire, which 
 continually burns but never burns out; man himself 
 being a spark of fire struck off from, and at death be- 
 comes lost in the great cosmic Fire. 
 
 In this whole system there is a marked element of 
 harmony characterizing all Nature, back of which is a 
 Universal Order, Divine Law, whose force is intelli- 
 gent and efficient, governing all things. Heracleitus 
 calls this all-prevailing principle intelligent Will, 8 Law, 9 
 
 8 Fragment 19 — There is one wisdom, to understand the intelli- 
 gent will by which all things are governed through all. 
 
 9 Fragment 91 — The law of understanding is common to all. 
 Those who speak with intelligence must hold fast to that which 
 is common to all, even more strongly than a city holds fast to 
 its law. For all human laws are dependent upon one divine law, 
 for this rules as far as it wills, and suffices for all, and over- 
 bounds. 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 35 
 
 Justice, 10 Destiny or Fate, 11 Wisdom, 12 God. 13 It is 
 both material and spiritual. In its fiery make-up it is 
 identical with evident, tangible activities; as Law it be- 
 comes pure Form which abides amid all changing re- 
 lationships. Do we not have here an interpretation of 
 the world in its ultimate essence which is charged 
 through and through with an unmistakable vitalism? 
 Confirmation and emphasis are given this belief by the 
 fact that to the original substance there is ascribed a 
 spirit of appetency, which determined by Universal 
 order — a rational Law — supplies the urge necessary 
 to the conflicting activities by which Nature has come 
 from a general substratum to the experience of specific 
 individual identities. Heracleitus even carries this doc- 
 trine of activism over into his ethics and teaches that 
 the "summum bonum" is reached chiefly through the 
 medium of intellectual striving. 14 " 
 
 DEMOCRITUS 
 
 We introduce at this time the philosophy of Democ- 
 ritus, 15 the first materialistic system. An analysis of 
 this philosophy is made, not because it belongs to the 
 
 10 Fragment 29 — The sun will not overstep his bounds, for if 
 he does, the Erinyes, helpers of justice, will find him out. 
 
 11 Fragment 63 — For it is wholly destined . . . 
 
 12 Fragment 65 — There is only one supreme wisdom. It wills 
 and wills not to be called by the name of Zeus. 
 
 13 Fragment 36 — God is day and night, winter and summer, 
 war and peace, plenty and want. But he is changed, just as 
 when incense is mingled with incense, but named according to 
 the pleasure of each. 
 
 14 Patrick's Heracleitus, p. 56 ff . 
 
 15 Democritus (460-370 B.C.). A native of Abdera, Thrace. 
 He studied in the famous Atomistic school of Leucippus which 
 was at that place. 
 
86 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 history of energy systems but because it is the best 
 example of a purely materialistic system and must be 
 carefully examined to show the limitations of a non 
 energetic system of thought; and also to show that 
 this elaborate program of materialism, being without 
 a vitalistic principle, offers a substitute for this seem- 
 ing need. 
 
 Here, then, we find no vitalism, no idealism ; every- 
 thing is considered from a mechanistic standpoint. 
 Democritus, taking up the work begun in Atomism by 
 his master Leucippus, was the best representative of 
 the Atomistic school. Naturally with him all phe- 
 nomena are explained in terms of atoms and the im- 
 pact of atoms. The atoms to which he reduces all 
 substance are invisible, uncreated, solid, indivisible lit- 
 tle bodies moving in empty space. Though alike quali- 
 tatively they differ in form and size. The various 
 groupings or constellations of these atoms furnish a 
 basis for all changing relationships. There is no mov- 
 ing force outside of them. Motion is a quality pe- 
 culiarly their own; and as they move in space they 
 mechanically strike each other. The impact causes the 
 coming together of other atoms, and "thus worlds are 
 formed as well as smaller objects from the original 
 vortex." The fire atoms, characterized by mental ac- 
 tivity, are the finest, smoothest, and most active. They 
 are to be found not only in man but in plants and 
 animals as well, constituting the soul life of that body 
 of which they are a part. Man's superior mentality is 
 due to a fuller abundance of these atoms. At death the 
 fire atoms take their flight and the soul life ceases to be. 
 
 Democritus does not give to his atoms a kind of 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 87 
 
 spontaneity as does Lucretius, nor feeling and will as 
 does the materialist Haeckel. He does not fail, how- 
 ever, to make provision for the energy part of the 
 -world. He endows his atoms with original motion 
 which enables them to experience independent self- 
 activity. Inherent in the nature of the atoms there is 
 a tendency to combine. And also in making the fire 
 atoms to be the principle of activity in all organisms, 16 
 the real "soul stuff," endowing their motion with a 
 psychical activity which permeates the entire organism, 
 producing the "phenomena of heat and life," he pre- 
 sents a definite substitute for the dynamic conception 
 of reality. 
 
 In Aristotle's philosophy of the organic world we 
 have an interpretation of reality which rises above the 
 materialism of Democritus and is more practical than 
 the idealism of Plato. He forsakes the conceptual bent 
 acquired in his early training and builds a world of 
 perceptual existence. He would say there are no ideas 
 apart from individual things. "True reality is the es- 
 sense which unfolds in phenomena." Matter and 
 Form are the two facts constituting reality. There is 
 a constant development in progress in the world which 
 represents the endeavor of matter to find expression in 
 Form. By matter he does not mean a hard, dead mass 
 but an undercurrent of Being endowed with potential- 
 ity and possibility. By Form he means the ideas or 
 
 16 Windelband, History of Ancient Philosophy, p. 165. (Trans- 
 lation by Cushman.) 
 
38 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 qualities which constitute the object. We can get 
 Aristotle's conception of reality by using the illustra- 
 tion of a building in process of construction which 
 would be something like this : "Matter is the stone in 
 the quarry and wood in the tree. Here is potential 
 being. Form is the idea of the future building as it is 
 in the mind. Reality then is the building as it will be 
 when finished." So of all reality. 
 
 Aristotle, however, was not so much interested in 
 reality itself as he was in its causes. Thus we find 
 him teaching that beneath the struggle of everything 
 toward a higher and better realization of itself there is 
 a dynamic quality which initiates and lends impetus to 
 the movement, whether we call it idea, Form, or 
 energy. Aristotle emphasizes the fact that there is no 
 particle of substance from which this quality is absent. 
 As matter strives to become Form — the potentiality to 
 develop into actuality — it is moving toward its highest 
 end in time, man; reaching out for the highest realiza- 
 tion possible, perfection, which is God. This inner 
 principle, the very soul of all things, is constantly 
 moving every part of Nature toward a definite end, 
 revealing a principle of purpose, which indicates a 
 knowing quality. This force then inherent in all Na- 
 ture is a rational principle of activity and has a real 
 relationship to the energy theory of the present time. 
 
 EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS 
 
 In Epicurus' conception of reality there is a program 
 patterned after that of Democritus. There is nothing 
 in the universe except innumerable, indestructible little 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 39 
 
 atoms and empty space. In the beginning all atoms 
 were falling in a straight line. Falling in empty space, 
 they fell with the same velocity. Each atom has in it- 
 self a characteristic freedom, a psychical quality which 
 was responsible for their swerving from their original 
 path. Striking one another a nucleus was formed, 
 finally objects, and the earth itself. Thus ultimate 
 reality is found in this little body, ruling out an out- 
 side force, final causes, God. There is no system, no 
 law, no purposive organization. 
 
 Lucretius, who belonged to this same school, in his 
 didactic poem, De Rerum Natura, reemphasizes the 
 philosophy of Epicurus, further saying that only atoms 
 and void exist. All things are the combinations of 
 these two or an "event of these." 1T But he gives his 
 atoms a certain spontaneity and free will, saying that 
 the w T orld, the same as everything else, is the spontan- 
 eous result of the combination of these little atoms 
 which are the constituents of life. In this idea of 
 spontaneity Lucretius makes a marked addition to the 
 psychical activity suggested by Democritus and Epi- 
 curus, and hence gives to his atoms a genuine dynamic 
 quality. 
 
 THE STOICS 
 
 In a study of the Stoics we find a system of material- 
 ism which says everything is matter, from God to the 
 most insignificant thing. Matter is the mover as well 
 as the thing moved. The whole universe is matter in 
 
 17 Lange, History of Materialism, Vol. I, p. 135. 
 
40 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 constant motion. Nature not only operates according 
 to law but is a supreme law in itself. It, however, is 
 permeated by a force, a fire, a reason, which is a for- 
 mative, governing, and vital principle. This principle 
 with a power inherent in itself operates constantly in 
 the process of development, guiding things to a perfect 
 end. This force is the very central fact in the uni- 
 verse's existence. It is to the universe what the soul 
 of man is to man, man's soul being but a part of the 
 great Soul, the great pervading force. Consequently 
 having here a vital force which is also rational, we 
 have a qualitatively psychic and dynamic interpreta- 
 tion of reality. 
 
 Augustine, representing the church fathers, and one 
 of the first subjectivists, in trying to locate certainty 
 and reality said truth and reason are within one's self. 
 These inner principles constitute the real life. "These 
 are really God, for He is truth and reason." The 
 more we learn the meaning of these inner experiences 
 the closer we get to reality. With him then ultimate 
 reality is God operating in one's self and life. 
 
 LEIBNITZ 
 
 We now come to that place in the history of the 
 search for reality where the dynamic and vitalistic 
 conceptions of reality which are found in Heracleitus, 
 Aristotle, the Stoics, and even in Lucretius, come to an 
 end for the time in the mathematico-mechanical con- 
 ception of the seventeenth century. Scientific interest 
 centers primarily in matter, space, extension and mo- 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 41 
 
 tion. There is one outstanding exception, however, to 
 the suggestion that in this period all energetic theories 
 are banished, and this exception is Leibnitz. His in- 
 terpretation of reality will now be treated, remember- 
 ing that he wrote later than Descartes or Spinoza, the 
 chief exponents of the mechanical conception prevail- 
 ing in this period. 
 
 Leibnitz attempted to do away with the old idea of 
 the atom as a divisible little body, also to eliminate the 
 single substance theory of Spinoza, and in this en- 
 deavor he built up in his monadology a theory which 
 is fired through and through with a dynamic concep- 
 tion of reality. In his system the universe is made up 
 of innumerable, indivisible little units called monads 
 which are bits of force constituting the ultimate es- 
 sence of all things, reality itself. "These primal es- 
 sences or forces, which he calls monads, constitute the 
 whole of reality; they are the fundamental elements 
 of the entire material and spiritual world . . . they 
 are contrasted with mere atoms in that they are not 
 dead, inert particles, but instinct with vitality and 
 movement." 18 
 
 In the world there are degrees of consciousness, 
 ranging from low to complete states, corresponding to 
 the make-up of the monads constituting the object. 
 This fact of degree roots itself in the two kinds of 
 quality which enter into matter so-called — passive and 
 active. Passive matter obstructs clear perception while 
 active matter represents pure perception. 
 
 In minerals the monads have a large measure of pas- 
 sive matter; consequently there is confused perception, 
 
 18 Alexander, A Short History of Philosophy, p. 320. 
 
42 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 not fully conscious. In organic life a large number of 
 the monads possess a greater proportion of active mat- 
 ter constituting a nucleus or governing center around 
 which the other monads cluster. Naturally then in 
 organic life there is a higher degree of perception, man 
 standing at the head of the group. It is only in God 
 that we find monads representing absolutely clear per- 
 ception. Thus individually and in groups, in all the 
 activities of the universe, we find these little centers 
 of force, with their own peculiar spirit of appetency, 
 climbing toward higher realizations of being. The 
 cause of the natural changes of the monads Leibnitz 
 would ascribe to an internal principle, "since an ex- 
 ternal cause can have no influence upon their inner 
 being." 19 Thus his philosophy becomes a fertile oasis 
 of dynamism having its setting in a desert of dead 
 mechanism. 
 
 As we have already suggested, in this period the 
 current of philosophical thought runs from vitalism to 
 mechanism. Descartes' philosophy well represents the 
 change of attitude toward reality. In his system a dis- 
 tinction is drawn between conscious and spatial reality. 
 Matter is diametrically opposed to spirit. There are 
 really three realities, "self, God, and matter." God is 
 the Absolute Reality and thus is the moving cause. 
 The two secondary substances are dependent on the 
 Absolute Reality, God. The chief qualities of matter 
 are extension and motion, but matter is essentially 
 extension, i. e., space. There is no place in this system 
 for indivisible facts like atoms. The attributes or 
 
 19 Latta, Leibnitz — The Monadology, p. 223. 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 43 
 
 qualities of objects do not rest in objects themselves 
 but are traceable to the creations of our mental activi- 
 ties. 
 
 He applies a mechanical conception to everything 
 outside of God and self, denying mental states even to 
 animals. Huxley was pleased because Descartes had 
 been able to see that "the remotest parts of the universe 
 are governed by mechanical laws including our own 
 bodily frame, and attempted for the first time to ac- 
 count for all natural phenomena as only a simple de- 
 velopment of the laws of mechanics with the effect of 
 arriving ... at that purely mechanical view of vital 
 phenomena toward which modern physiology is striv- 
 ing." 20 
 
 Spinoza, continuing the mechanical conception of 
 reality characteristic of this period, makes no great, 
 fundamental change in the philosophy of Descartes. 
 Known as the God-intoxicated man, he taught the ex- 
 istence of but one substance, God. God and the world 
 are identical. This infinite Substance has two attri- 
 butes — mind and matter. There are things other than 
 God which exist and yet they exist in Him; they are a 
 part of God. God is everything; everything is God, 
 might be considered a summary of his philosophy. 
 
 MECHANISM VERSUS DYNAMISM 
 
 The mechanism prevailing in this period to which 
 we have referred would say "the substance itself does 
 not change. All that changes is the relation between 
 
 20 Cooley, The Principles of Science, p. 135. 
 
44 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 the substances. These changes in relation give rise in 
 us, as onlookers, to the illusion that the substance it- 
 self is changing its qualities," 21 thus making the world 
 of mechanics tell the complete story of reality. This 
 as over against the dynamic conception which would 
 say "it is of the very nature of the substance sponta- 
 neously to produce new qualities and states." Thus 
 according to mechanism the idea of an inner force 
 directing to an end, or even present at all, is supplanted 
 by the belief that all harmony, all changes are due to 
 the mechanical interactions of parts and their relation 
 to outside influences. As the principles of "adjust- 
 ment, interaction, continuity, uniformity, and causa- 
 tion" play their part we have the secret of all activities. 
 And as a result of the work of Descartes, Newton, 
 Spinoza, etc., the dynamic theory of reality had to wait 
 for expression until the nineteenth and twentieth cen- 
 turies, at which time we are ushered into the biological, 
 psychological, and dynamic era in which energy be- 
 comes the more basal concept. 
 
 In connection with the mechanical theories it is in 
 order here to reach forward and mention the philos- 
 ophy of Herbert Spencer, although his writings do not 
 appear until after the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Spencer endeavored to show that all activities 
 of the universe have as a basis of operation a funda- 
 mental principle, a persistent force. 22 Then in at- 
 
 21 Marvin, A First Book in Metaphysics, pp. 184-185. 
 
 22 "As shown before, we cannot go on merging derivative 
 truths in those under-truths from which they are derived, with- 
 out reaching at least a widest truth which can be merged in no 
 other, 01 derived from no other. And the relation in which it 
 stands to the truths of science in general shows that this 
 transcending demonstration is the Persistence of Force. . . . But 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 45 
 
 tempting to account for the way in which this prin- 
 ciple reveals itself, he gives an interpretation of reality 
 which is mechanical and unsatisfactory. He would 
 say "the law of the continuous redistribution of matter 
 and energy" is fundamental in all changes and rela- 
 tionships. As constant activity characterizes every- 
 thing, in this constant movement there is an upward 
 and downward process going on continually. The end 
 of the upward movement is reached when like units are 
 brought together in such way as to obtain a balance of 
 stability. It is then when this point is reached that 
 the downward movement begins in the process of dis- 
 integration. Thus the universe is one big piece of 
 machinery whose parts are moving one way for a time 
 and then another. All activities are thus reduced to a 
 system of mechanism. 
 
 That such a dead mechanical view, which had been 
 dominating in this field of thought for years and held 
 by Spencer in the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
 was unable to satisfy the mind (pragmatically insuffi- 
 cient) is shown by the new dynamic currents of 
 thought entering from many quarters, all suggestive 
 of the energy concept, several of which we shall take 
 up at this time. 
 
 when we ask what the energy is, there is no answer save that it 
 is the noumenal cause, implied by the phenomenal effect. Hence 
 the force of which we assert persistence is that Absolute Force 
 we are obliged to postulate as the necessary correlate of the 
 force we are conscious of. By the Persistence of Force we really 
 mean the persistence of some cause which transcends our knowl- 
 edge and conception. In asserting it we assert an Unconditional 
 Reality without beginning or end." (Spencer, First Principles, 
 Sixth Edition. 175-176.) 
 
46 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 "There were those who said everything could be ex- 
 plained by natural science as a great world machine," 
 but this attitude seemed cold and harsh to Kant, he 
 feeling keenly conscious that there was something 
 lacking in the philosophy prevailing at that time. It 
 seemed to him to be out of touch with real facts, with 
 real life. He aimed at supplying this seeming need. 
 
 In seeking the real facts of life Kant goes past the 
 secondary world of phenomena and discovers a pri- 
 mary world of absolute values. Here we meet with 
 human nature in which there is a marvel of beauty 
 and dignity. In this realm of higher values we come 
 in touch with real life, the innermost essence of man, 
 the will. This ultimate fact, will, is untrammeled, 
 free, supreme. 
 
 All law proceeds from the will for we can do just 
 what we will to do. There is only one good thing in 
 the world, a good will, and this striving will, acting as 
 a unifying power, a synthetic activity, is the Alpha and 
 Omega of all things. Thus Kant's system, the central, 
 vital principle of which is a striving, energetic will, 
 must be given a place in the list of dynamic philoso- 
 phies, and a definite relationship to the energy con- 
 cept, 
 
 Schopenhauer's philosophy of the will 
 
 Schopenhauer makes will to be the moving principle, 
 the vitalizing force, not only in man but in all Nature 
 as well. This striving principle is common to all Na- 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 4T 
 
 ture, nothing being too small or remote to escape its 
 influence. It is the eternal and indestructible ultimate 
 essence, the final reality in all things. Will not only 
 reveals itself in external things but is matter itself. 
 Our bodily movements, and the organs which enter 
 into our experiences are but manifestations of a surg- 
 ing, striving will. "The brain is the will to know, the 
 foot the will to go, the stomach the will to digest." 23 
 
 Will is the force urging the grass to grow, the 
 flowers to bloom, the tree to bear fruit, in short, all 
 Nature to observe its uniform methods of behavior. 
 It is the primary characteristic of all life, the lowest 
 type being the willing to preserve life, the simple will- 
 ing to live. From this lowest type there is a gradual 
 rise in the series until the highest type is reached which 
 is conscious, and is represented by man. The beauty 
 and harmony of all Nature is due to the fact that there 
 is but one will and this same will operates in all phe- 
 nomena including man, its great objective always 
 being the highest and best possible. 
 
 Striving for the best does not mean any particular 
 end, for Schopenhauer rules out purposes. Thus all 
 activities of the universe constitute a mass of constant, 
 endless, irrational striving, the great driving motor 
 being the will. 
 
 In this connection Wundt's philosophy of will units 
 and Hegel's philosophy of spirit could be offered as 
 dynamic theories as over against the mechanical 
 theories advocated by Descartes and Spinoza. We 
 
 23 Quoted from A Short History of Philosophy, Alexander, 
 p. 501. 
 
48 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 simply mention them here and later, under another 
 heading, we shall offer a brief analysis of each. 
 
 HAECKEL 
 
 In each of the immediately foregoing systems of 
 thought, indicative of modern belief, we find an active, 
 striving, vitalizing force at work. So, continuing our 
 line of thought which is characteristic of modern scien- 
 tific presentation, we shall now turn aside for the time 
 being and consider the philosophy of the materialist 
 Haeckel, the monism-intoxicated scientist. It may 
 seem out of order to introduce his system in connec- 
 tion with a study of the energy concept, but we shall 
 give a summary of his philosophy and add quotations 
 from his work, The Riddle of the Universe, with 
 the purpose of showing that he actually gives to his 
 atoms a quality of energetic striving. 
 
 He purports to represent a system of monism which 
 rises above spiritualism and sheer materialism, as they 
 ignore matter and teach the doctrine of dead atoms, 
 respectively. 24 He would merge both into one and call 
 it monism. There is but one substance into which 
 everything roots itself. In this substance its two attri- 
 butes, matter and mind, are linked together as one. 
 
 Very often Haeckel' s representations are not alto- 
 gether clear. In his explanation of some activities he 
 points to the soul principle, and at other times pictures 
 the psychical activities as representing the ordinary 
 
 24 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 20. (Translation by 
 McCabe.) 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 49 
 
 functions of the brain, as rooting themselves in the 
 central nervous system. Psychology is but a sub-head 
 under physiology in his general presentation. 
 
 Though a heralded materialist he definitely gives to 
 his atoms a quality of feeling, of will, of striving, 
 which challenges the correctness of the classification 
 which some are inclined to give his philosophy. His 
 atoms seem to have an affinity for each other, a satis- 
 faction in harmonious relationships and resent an in- 
 terruption of these experiences. This unconscious, 
 pleasurable affinity noticed in the lower strata of life 
 is what we meet in the sexes of organic life, simply 
 more highly developed in the latter, for this funda- 
 mental unity of affinity is found in all Nature. 25 
 
 This program which places all vital phenomena 
 under mechanical processes of life, even making psychic 
 activities dependent on a definite material substratum, 
 like all other phenomena, later adds that "covering the 
 whole field of organic and inorganic nature the two 
 fundamental forms of substance, ponderable matter 
 and ether, are not dead and only moved by extrinsic 
 force, but they are endowed with sensation and will; 
 they experience an inclination for condensation, a dis- 
 like for strain; they strive after the one and struggle 
 against the other." 26 
 
 In speaking of the atom Haeckel says it "is not with- 
 out a rudimentary form of sensation and will, or as it 
 is better expressed, of feeling and inclination — that is 
 a universal 'soul' of the simplest character." 27 He 
 
 25 Ibid., p. 224. 
 
 26 Ibid., p. 220. (Italics are mine.) 
 
 27 Ibid., p. 225. 
 
50 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 
 would carry this same principle of activity into the 
 molecule. 
 
 In speaking of ether, which is boundless and im- 
 measurable, he says : "It is in eternal motion, and this 
 specific movement of ether in reciprocal action with 
 mass movement is the ultimate cause of all phenom- 
 ena." 28 The question naturally arises as to what causes 
 the ether to move or the mass to reciprocate. He 
 would say "the conversion of one form of energy into 
 another, as indicated in the law of the persistence of 
 force, illustrates the constant reciprocity of the two 
 chief types of substance, ether and mass." 29 But this 
 does not answer the question as to the fundamental 
 cause of change. 
 
 Haeckel would make the law of reciprocity dominate 
 the elaborate performances of the nervous system it- 
 self. But even when saying that "movement is as 
 innate and original a property of substance as is sensa- 
 tion," he is not fully clear as to cause. It is when 
 speaking of the evolutionary division of mass and 
 ether that he ascribes the real cause of change and 
 which cause embodies a vitalistic conception — "this di- 
 vision so effected by a progressive condensation of 
 matter as the formation of countless infinitesimal cen- 
 ters of condensation in which the inherent primitive 
 properties of substance — feeling and inclination — are 
 the active causes." 30 Thus there is a "unity of all 
 natural forces" which is the "monism of energy/' 31 
 
 28 Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe, p. 228. 
 
 29 Ibid., p. 230. 
 
 30 Ibid., p. 243. (Italics are mine.) 
 31 Ibid., p. 254. (Italics are mine.) 
 
HISTORY OF THOUGHT 51 
 
 OSTWALD 
 
 Among those scientists of modern times who have 
 presented definite energy theories, a prominent place 
 must be given the philosophy of Ostwald. 32 Here we 
 meet a system in which force or energy is established 
 as the primary concept ; the concept matter being classi- 
 fied as a secondary phenomena, having its origin in the 
 association and mingling of certain energies. Accord- 
 ing to Siebert, 33 Ostwald means by energy everything 
 that grows out of work and everything that can be 
 transformed into work. The explanation of all occur- 
 rences in the whole of Nature rests in an understanding 
 of the activities and shif tings of energies in space and 
 time. 
 
 There is a continual process going on in Nature of 
 distributing and gathering energy. If a living being is 
 to continue life it must, by an initiative and energy all 
 its own, gather unto itself quantities of energy suffi- 
 cient not only for preserving life but in addition 
 thereto, for it is thus that it makes possible its continu- 
 ance in the preservation of the species. When the 
 barriers of resistance against which the organism has 
 to fight, as it gathers energy, become stronger than 
 the latter, then the living form dies. As the body takes 
 in energy the nervous apparatuses constitute the me- 
 dium for the transmutation of the energy into activi- 
 ties. 
 
 32 Wm. Ostwald (1853-), Professor of Physical Chemistry at 
 Leipsic. 
 
 33 Geschichte der neuren deutschen Philosophic seit Hegel, 
 Siebert, pp. 302-305. 
 
52 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 It is thus seen in the history of thought that it would 
 be impossible successfully to relegate to the background 
 the strong tendency to dynamism. It has been in this 
 type of philosophy that the scientific as well as the 
 everyday type of mind has found most genuine satis- 
 faction. Confirmation of this attitude is seen in the 
 seeming fact that those systems have been lasting as 
 well as satisfying which have been built around an 
 energetic conception. It is not strange then that 
 modern thought is speaking out definitely in support of 
 an energetic interpretation of reality. 
 
Chapter III 
 
 THE DYNAMIC TREND IN MODERN 
 PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 There is so much in modern psychology which has 
 a strong bearing on the energy concept that no one 
 writing in this field would fail to mention the definite 
 current of thought in contemporary psychology, set- 
 ting in the direction of an emphasis upon the will and 
 amative element in our mental life. These together 
 with the voluntaristic tendency of thought, the Freudian 
 wish, the emphasis placed upon feeling, self-regard, 
 and fear, all indicate a relationship to an energetic con- 
 ception of reality which cannot be overlooked. 
 
 In the search for the cause responsible for the "pull" 
 or "urge" which is so evident in human nature, the psy- 
 chologist naturally goes into the realm of the mental 
 life, for it is here that the fundamental element in all 
 activity is to be found. Modern thought, however, is 
 not stopping with the intellect ; this seems to have had 
 its day. This fact is very clear in Bergson who in 
 trying to organize the delicate machinery of the inner 
 life definitely relegates intellect to a subordinate place. 
 With him intellect seems to be in a foreign field when 
 trying to deal with the life of the body and mind. In- 
 tellect is unable to get hold of life. It seems to be at 
 home in dealing with the inert; always mechanically 
 applying the forms of unorganized matter. Here only 
 
 53 
 
54 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 does it seem to find complete satisfaction. Intellect 
 simply takes things as they are given to it and tries to 
 organize them. When we come to those things which 
 flow from the heart of the living we begin to talk in 
 terms of behavior and give a primary place to instinct, 
 impulse, will. 
 
 We are not dealing simply with that which enables 
 us to know things but with that something which is 
 continually drawing to the yes-side and no-side of life, 
 as situations demand decisions. Is this something due 
 to a mechanical organization of our dispositions prede- 
 termined at our very inception in life? Or is it due 
 to organized persistent energy or endeavor characteris- 
 tic of all life? Modern psychology believes the latter 
 to be the case. 
 
 The school of voluntarism, wielding an important 
 influence in psychology to-day, will have but little to 
 do with intellect, putting emphasis on the will instead, 
 saying that in this we meet finality. As individual 
 purposiveness characterizes all our actions, the factor 
 guiding to this end is the will, playing continually the 
 volitional role peculiar to itself. Our inward experi- 
 ences then, controlled by the will and of which we are 
 immediately conscious, reveal ultimate reality and con- 
 stitute a willing dynamism. 1 
 
 Wundt is an able representative of this school of 
 thought which gives such a large place to the will. 
 With him voluntary action is feeling in which the will 
 asserts itself. "The feelings of each moment unite in 
 a single total feeling; this total feeling is the resultant 
 
 1 Perry, The Present Conflict of Ideas, pp. 205-210; 454-459. 
 
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 55 
 
 volitional tendency." 2 Volition finds its causes in mo- 
 tives, but for a motive to be effective it must be asso- 
 ciated with a willing self. And since volition has its 
 origin in internal processes "it is at once clear that 
 motives must be internal psychical causes." 
 
 According to Wundt the connate impulse roots it- 
 self in an interplay of psychical processes, as seen in 
 the actions of a hungry infant. This impulse is "physio- 
 logical in its ultimate basis but springs directly from 
 psychological conditions which may at any time inter- 
 fere to modify its original character." 3 Thus we have 
 in this psychology an interpretation of reality in which 
 there is an underlying, energetic principle dominating 
 the whole category of life's activities. 
 
 In James' psychology we also find much stress put 
 upon the will as an ultimate factor in the execution of 
 purpose. He would say that the triumph of a motive 
 or the realization of a desire is due to their being held 
 fast before the mind at the focus of consciousness and 
 that this is accomplished by inhibiting all other ideas 
 competing for domination. Thus there is much in real 
 will power. 
 
 Bergson finds no satisfaction in a mechanistic in- 
 terpretation of reality nor in a theory of finalism. 4 
 At every turn in his system we meet activity, back of 
 which is an energetic impulse. With him mind is "a 
 force working, seeking to free itself from trammels 
 and also to surpass itself, to give first all it has and 
 
 2 Wundt, Human and Animal Psychology, p. 234. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 401. 
 
 4 Bergson, Creative Evolution, p. 87. (Translation by Mitchell.) 
 
56 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 then something more than it has." 5 When speaking 
 of mind he means, above everything else, conscious- 
 ness; and to this he ascribes heavy responsibilities, all 
 of an active nature. The most obvious feature of 
 consciousness is memory. Consciousness, however, 
 not only retains the past but anticipates the future as 
 well. In the performance of these two primary func- 
 tions, its chief role is to decide, to choose. Bergson 
 feels that "whether we consider the act which con- 
 sciousness decrees or the perception which prepares the 
 act, in either case consciousness appears as a force seek- 
 ing to assert itself in matter in order to get possession 
 of it and turn it to its profit." 6 'The evolution of life, 
 from its earliest origins up to man, presents to us the 
 image of a current of consciousness flowing against 
 matter determined to force for itself a subterranean 
 passage." 7 
 
 With Bergson consciousness cannot be explained 
 apart from matter, and vice versa; and even matter it- 
 self he makes to be of an active type. In his Creative 
 Evolution he says that matter is the inverse of con- 
 sciousness. While "consciousness is action unceasingly 
 creating and enriching itself . . . matter is action con- 
 tinually unmaking itself or using itself up." A cre- 
 ative consciousness is continually striving against mat- 
 ter. "Things have happened just as though an im- 
 mense current of consciousness, interpenetrated with 
 potentialities of every kind, had traversed matter to 
 draw it towards organization and make it, notwith- 
 
 5 Bergson, Mind-Energy, p. 27. (Translation by Carr.) 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 22. 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 27. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 23. 
 
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 57 
 
 standing that it is necessity itself, an instrument of 
 freedom." 9 In seeking to account for the origin of 
 consciousness and matter he suggests that they both 
 have a common source. 
 
 As we go deeper into Bergson's philosophy the ques- 
 tion naturally arises, What is the secret of this cease- 
 less struggle? And then we learn that there must be 
 an "impulse driving it (life) to take ever greater and 
 greater risks toward its goal of an ever higher and 
 higher efficiency." 10 He explains this ultimate guid- 
 ing and developing element in Nature by what he calls 
 the vital or original impetus. This vital principle 
 continually operates in a way very suggestive of the 
 energy concept. As generations of germs come and 
 go, this impulse, in the processes of evolution, contin- 
 ues to abide. Thus it is fundamental to the formation 
 of variations and especially those new species which 
 are permanent. As variations begin to appear they 
 may become further and further from the original and 
 yet may in particular ways show not only similarity, 
 but identity as well, the original impetus being respon- 
 sible for the situation. Thus Bergson's whole system 
 is seen to be distinctively dynamic. 
 
 McDougall, like James, would emphasize the will, 
 saying that when two motives are competing for su- 
 premacy the will is thrown on the side of one of them 
 which leads to a volitional decision ; we thus "in some 
 way add to the energy with which the idea of the one 
 desired end maintains itself in opposition to its rival." 1X 
 
 9 Ibid., p. 25. 
 
 10 Ibid., p. 24. 
 
 11 McDougall, Social Psychology, p. 246. 
 
58 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 But McDougall feels that there is something back of 
 all this and suggests that "human activities, both men- 
 tal and bodily are only to be explained or understood 
 by tracing them back to a number of innate disposi- 
 tions, tendencies to feel and act in certain more or less 
 specific ways, in certain situations . . . like the simi- 
 lar innate tendencies of the animals.'' 12 
 
 Thorndike in his "Educational Psychology" says 
 "these innate tendencies too bear the impetus and 
 means to their own improvement." This makes them 
 somewhat independent, self-directing and supporting. 
 Thus we find many psychologists are pointing to the 
 field of instincts as having a vital connection with all 
 experiences, maintaining that "each instinct is a great 
 source or spring of the psycho-physical energy that 
 supports our bodily and mental activities." 
 
 In modern Psychology we also find self being 
 stressed as the abiding entity. Naturally then much 
 is made of the self -re gar ding sentiment. According 
 to Freud and his school, in the heart of this self is an 
 unburied wish, which is persistent, imperishable and 
 unfulfilled. This wish as a vitalistic element is so per- 
 sistent that it is continually appealing for a chance for 
 expression, and if thwarted once, will appear else- 
 where, again and again, perhaps in a new form. 
 
 Fundamental to all thought and activity is this ever 
 striving wish, which is inherited from one generation 
 to another. "Inherited wishes . . . are pulses of 
 energy and not organic structure. Can the wish of 
 
 12 McDougall, Social Psychology, p. 385. 
 
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 59 
 
 the parent arouse the same wish in the offspring ? Yes, 
 if the wish is a pulse energy and not a structural prod- 
 uct. The pulse which is a wish in consciousness passes 
 through the whole organism affecting every part to 
 some degree. The child in the womb or undischarged 
 sex cell would be somewhat altered by the pulse. . . . 
 The child thus receives the wish pulses aroused by the 
 parent." 13 This wish then is an undying energetic 
 principle running in the middle of the stream of human 
 nature. As an active principle inherited from one 
 generation to another, it reminds us somewhat of 
 Bergson's original impetus which passes from one 
 generation of germs to another, and which we have 
 suggested as being very similar to the activities of a 
 restless energy. 
 
 Not only the Freudian school but others as well 
 would root all these processes in the sex impulse. In 
 the last few years there has been much of sex in 
 psychological literature, as seen in the works of Freud, 
 Hall, Ellis, and others. Barton, recognizing the re- 
 lationship between religion and adolescence, says sex is 
 the predominant source in religion. As a background 
 of proof for this attitude reference is made to the 
 genetic account of relationship of sex to religion in 
 which it is shown that the curve of conversion which 
 is the religious awakening, harmonizes with the fre- 
 quency of accession to puberty, the peak for boys 
 coming at the age of sixteen and seventeen and for 
 girls thirteen and fourteen. 
 
 But the fact as to whether or not this innate ten- 
 
 13 Patten, The Monist — Article on the Divided Self. 
 
60 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 dency, this inner striving, this vitalistic principle with 
 its processes roots down into the sex instinct does not 
 interest us so much here as the fact that much in mod- 
 ern psychology in teaching the presence of an innate 
 tendency, is leaning toward a dynamic interpretation 
 of life, and thus makes its definite contribution to the 
 establishment of a relationship between this field of 
 thought and the energy concept. 
 
 Even in the philosophy of life itself, as it is being 
 lived by the multitudes to-day, we meet a strain of the 
 energy concept. Such terms as "up and doing," "wide 
 awake," "full of life," "on the go," "full of pep," all 
 bespeak life with a large expenditure of energy. And 
 this is present day life. The passive life is altogether 
 out of harmony with the spirit of the times. The 
 gospel of to-day is that of action. 
 
 Rudolph Eucken in his philosophy of activism is the 
 apostle of this type of thought. His works beam with 
 a dynamic interpretation of life. Passivity is diamet- 
 rically opposed to his idea of real life. The individual 
 who plays only a passive part in life's work not only 
 fails to make his expected contribution but fails in the 
 development of his own self. We find ourselves only 
 as we fight to work out our own salvation. We cannot 
 expect to 
 
 "Be carried to the skies 
 On flowery beds of ease," 
 
 but must 
 
 'Fight to win the prize, 
 
 And sail through bloody seas." 
 
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY 61 
 
 We come to the full realization of the beauty and 
 worth of life only as the spiritual self triumphs over 
 the resistance which it meets in the world. Activity 
 is the only avenue through which one can take his 
 place in the world of real values. Thus a life full of 
 energy and organized toward right ends is reality it- 
 self. 
 
 So we see that in the philosophy of the past, in con- 
 temporary psychology, and even in the philosophy of 
 life there is strong support for the attitude of modern 
 science which is definitely declaring its belief in a 
 dynamic conception of reality. 
 
Part II: ENERGY AS A SPIRITUAL 
 FORCE 
 
Chapter I 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF 
 ENERGY 
 
 In the first part we set out to learn, if possible, the 
 identity of that something which in the midst of un- 
 ceasing change, continues to abide; that something 
 which constitutes the ultimate essence of the world. 
 It was seen that the search for ultimate reality was not 
 anything new but that the inquiry concerning final 
 reality constitutes a strong current in the general 
 stream of philosophical endeavor. Finally, we came 
 to the conclusion that that abiding something is energy 
 and endeavored to show that from the standpoint of 
 science and philosophy the whole universe is to be 
 conceived in terms of energy. 
 
 Also it was seen that many of the profound thinkers 
 recognized a mysterious, dynamic principle in Nature 
 and ascribed to it wonderful possibilities. This ener- 
 getic conception seemed to prevail until the seventeenth 
 century when a mechanistic interpretation began to 
 predominate. But science and philosophy seemingly 
 failed to find satisfaction in a cold, dead, mechanical 
 system, with the result that the dynamic conception of 
 reality began to reappear, receiving a new emphasis, 
 until to-day science is speaking out boldly, saying that 
 not only does dynamism justifiably take precedence 
 
 65 
 
66 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 over mechanical materialism but that reality itself is 
 energy. 
 
 THEORIES OF ENERGY 
 
 There are several theories of energy as outlined by 
 Cooley in his book, The Principles of Science: 
 
 (i) Energy is given a place as substance beside 
 matter; it is made to be a universal, formative agency. 
 Matter is the means through and by which energy ac- 
 complishes its purposes, the something which it shapes. 
 This, then, is a dualistic attitude, there being two sub- 
 stances — energy and matter. 
 
 (2) The second view makes matter the only sub- 
 stance, and energy is simply the name representing its 
 activities. Energetic phenomena are simply matter in 
 action. So we call heat, chemical affinity, electricity, 
 etc., different forms of matter's activities. 
 
 (3) "We may think of energy as the true funda- 
 mental substance of the world, and matter as one of 
 its modes, its more highly organized form. This is 
 the conception embodied in the electronic theory of 
 matter, or at least in one form of it. According to 
 that conception fundamental existence is essentially 
 active — a heaving ocean of being — but it is not active 
 matter; it is that more subtle, weightless agency which 
 we call electricity. This, which is the real agent in all 
 that goes on in the physical world, the root of all nat- 
 ural forces, exists in the form of more or less discrete 
 and extremely active units (electrons). 1 . . . Thus 
 we may think of it as itself the one fundamental 
 
 1 Cooley, The Principles of Science, pp. 126-127. 
 
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 67 
 
 (physical) existence, manifold in all forms, ceaselessly 
 active in its nature." 2 
 
 It is the third view which modern thought is coming 
 more and more to accept. And the more we study the 
 present scientific attitude the more are we amazed at 
 the large field of facts which the term energy is selected 
 to represent. Thus it seems that at this time, by way 
 of explanation, it should be said that the word energy 
 with its established meaning in our vocabulary is really 
 not big enough to represent all that science means when 
 using the term. Since we are making energy stand for 
 so much, it would be more satisfactory if a new word 
 had been introduced into the list of scientific terms. 
 With these facts in mind regarding the use of the term 
 energy we now approach the immediate task of en- 
 deavoring to interpret what seems to be the facts of its 
 inner content. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS 
 
 Having reached the conclusion that reality is energy, 
 we now want to know what this energy is. Ours is an 
 ontological problem and naturally leads us in our in- 
 quiries into an attempt to obtain a critical understand- 
 ing of what "being" really is. Apparently the old 
 philosophers were satisfied to say that reality was 
 earth, air, fire, water, etc., and being just pioneers in 
 the field of scientific investigation could not with posi- 
 tive assurance get close to the heart of their problems. 
 Science to-day is past the place where it is willing to 
 take very much for granted and is dissatisfied unless it 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 128. 
 
68 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 can get on the inside of its investigated subjects. 
 With the models of the centuries at hand and with 
 accumulated insight and improved scientific methods, 
 we have a right to expect a scientific progress com- 
 mensurate with the advantages which the present en- 
 joys, in relation to the past. So we must not stop 
 with the general concept of energy but inquire con- 
 cerning its qualitative aspects. 
 
 Since science to-day is operating on the assumption 
 that energy is that element fundamental to all forms of 
 existence and which represents the final analysis of 
 all things, it is logical for us to adopt the short-cut 
 method and simply knock at the door of chemistry and 
 physics and ask, What is energy ? 
 
 We go to the physicist and ask him for a definition 
 of matter and he tells us it is "an aggregation of elec- 
 tric charges." If we ask for a definition of energy he 
 says it is the "capacity for doing work"; and if urged 
 to be more concrete he may say it is "force times the 
 distance." Then if we ask for a definition of reality 
 we are told that that does not belong to physics but to 
 another field of thought, philosophy. 
 
 Thus we make the discovery that the scientist con- 
 cerns himself very little with our side of the problem. 
 He deals with energy chiefly in its quantative aspects 
 and is not as persistent in his endeavor to make a quali- 
 tative analysis. It seems that the interest of science 
 in this latter phase is measured and determined by the 
 amount of philosophy which happens to be therein. 
 
 "Who or what moves bodies, in the sense of agency 
 or potency, is for scientific purposes a negligible ques- 
 
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 69 
 
 tion." 3 In dealing with energy the end of the physi- 
 cist and chemist are met primarily in the mathematico 
 relationships. 
 
 In our study of the energy concept, we are interested 
 in this problem from a qualitative standpoint. The 
 "number, length, breadth, volume, interval," etc., will 
 not suffice for our purpose; nor is it satisfactory to 
 stop with saying that things behave thus and so as they 
 are influenced by certain causes. We want to go 
 deeper than this and know "why" and "how" these 
 causes operate. And since our immediate objective is 
 to analyze reality qualitatively, we have a goal, there- 
 fore, which is very different from that which could be 
 reached by means of mathematical science. 
 
 In probing into the question concerning the attri- 
 butes of energy we read with great interest, in de 
 Tunzelmann's Problem of the Universe, the state- 
 ment that "the concept of the ether has led us to the 
 conclusion that energy is a more fundamental concept 
 than either ether or matter. It is therefore more fun- 
 damental than the concept of mass, so that the indicated 
 path of progress is not the remodeling of our repre- 
 sentation in order to make it capable of simpler ex- 
 pression in terms of a system of dynamics in which 
 mass was regarded as fundamental. What we have to 
 contemplate is, in my opinion, the remodeling of our 
 system of dynamics on the basis of energy in the place 
 of mass. We may then begin to contemplate the ulti- 
 mate possibility of a future remodeling in which mind 
 3 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 53. 
 
70 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 will replace energy as the fun tal basis of the 
 
 physical scheme." 4 
 
 Chamberlain lends emphasis to this attitude in say- 
 ing that "an immeasurably higher evolution than that 
 now reached, with attainments beyond present compre- 
 hension, is a reasonable hope. The forecast of an eon 
 of intellectual and spiritual development comparable 
 in magnitude to the prolonged physical and biotic evo- 
 lutions lends to the total view of earth-history great 
 moral satisfaction." 5 
 
 Also, Perry says, "If it is impossible to construe the 
 world in terms of thought or in terms of moral life, 
 there yet remains a further conception, complete 
 enough to embrace these and every other possible 
 value — the conception of a universal spiritual life that 
 shall be infinitely various and infinitely rich." These 
 attitudes point to the same possible conception of real- 
 ity; they stress the sr: pt. 
 
 Since, as we have suggested before, physical science 
 offers no answer to our legitimate demands for a quali- 
 tative interpretation of energy, we are therefore forced 
 to make our own hypothesis respecting its inner na- 
 ture; and are encouraged by the tendency of modern 
 thought, as mentioned above, to champion a belief in 
 the hypothesis which says that energy is of a spiritual, 
 ' '::.'. nature. 
 
 This hypothesis is what in philosophy is called 
 spiritualism, and gains for its support whatever 
 
 4 de Tunzelmann. Preface to The Electrical Theory and the 
 Problem of the Universe, pp. 15-16. (Italics are mine.) 
 
 5 Cha-:berl=ir. ar.d Salisbury, Introductory Geology, p. 684. 
 
 6 Pern-, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 153- 
 
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 71 
 
 strength there is in this system of belief. There are 
 many important facts in philosophy with which spirit- 
 ualism is in harmony and whose problems this theory 
 helps to solve. While on the other hand, any theory 
 which opposes these outstanding facts or leaves them 
 without explanation, must in its very nature be looked 
 upon as incomplete. In the approach to this part of 
 our task, ours is a virgin field. We repeat, while 
 science is looking upon reality as energy it offers no 
 qualitative interpretation of energy. This being true, 
 the spiritualistic hypothesis, as such, is legitimate, and 
 since it will be verified as far as it explains things 
 which need explanation, can demand a respectful hear- 
 ing. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND THE CREATIVE IDEA 
 
 In the first place, a spiritual interpretation of reality 
 helps to solve the problem of creation. There is a 
 prevailing notion in modern thought that creation is 
 not a finished fact, a thing of the past, but as a prin- 
 ciple inheres in the life of the present. "Traces of evi- 
 dence are lately beginning to come into view, which 
 are highly suggestive of continuous present day crea- 
 tion of matter at the inorganic level, and of creation 
 of life from inorganic materials at the organic level." 7 
 A creative workmanship seems to be characteristic of 
 all Nature, underlying which is a dynamic, energetic 
 principle. This vital, creative impulse is continually 
 reaching its objective. It is not strange, then, that in 
 the recent movements of thought we should meet repre- 
 
 7 Moore, The Origin and Nature of Life, p. 31. 
 
72 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 sentatives of creative evolution, creative synthesis, cre- 
 ative intelligence. It seems there is no fact in modern 
 philosophy which looms up quite so large as the crea- 
 tive idea. But in this incessant life of continuous crea- 
 tion there must be more than an interplay of mechani- 
 cal agencies. A creative activity is difficult to conceive 
 apart from spirit. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND VITALISM 
 
 Again, we have seen how general is the stream of 
 vitalism which runs through philosophical and scientific 
 thought. It holds a prominent place in the history of 
 thought because there are strong evidences of it in 
 Nature. If there are remarkable evidences of a vitalis- 
 tic principle in Nature we are justified in believing it 
 to be there. Even the "naked eye" reveals to us Nature 
 throbbing with a fervent life. In fact we have con- 
 cluded that reality is energy. Can we think of a vital- 
 istic principle rooting itself in mechanism ? Hardly so. 
 Nor can we conceive of vitalism out of relation to 
 spirit. History and personal experience have clearly 
 shown that a mechanical "letter of the law" program 
 kills, while it is the spirit which gives life. Interpret- 
 ing energy spiritually seems to furnish the only explan~ 
 ation for the presence of the vitalistic element inherent 
 in Nature. 
 
 The mechanistic interpretation may satisfy in a 
 limited way but unless spirit is posited back of all 
 this, it is impossible to beat down the troublesome 
 question, Whence came this great piece of smoothly 
 working machinery — the universe? Here the me- 
 
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 73 
 
 chanical materialist, although applying his interest in- 
 tensively to other tasks, takes things as he finds them 
 and asks no questions. It is genuinely inconsistent 
 and unsatisfactory to pass up the problem of origin in 
 this way; it smacks too much of incompleteness. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND TELEOLOGY 
 
 In observing the harmonious relationships charac- 
 terizing the activities of the universe, most thinkers 
 are inclined to say with Tennyson, 
 
 , "Yet, I doubt not through the ages, one increasing purpose 
 runs." 
 
 And Henderson, speaking as a bio-chemist in the 
 Order of Nature, stresses the impossibility of ignoring 
 
 , the fact that there is a purposive tendency in things. 
 The evident expression of intelligence which is met 
 
 : everywhere has been explained by many as a teleologi- 
 cal provision on the part of a great Designer. There 
 is evidence of teleology in Nature, but the old system 
 of teleology is not satisfactory, because it makes God 
 too much of a transcendent Being. Realizing that the 
 kingdom of heaven is within us, modern thought is 
 making him less of a sky God and is giving him his 
 rightful place in the very heart of life. He is not only 
 transcendent but is immanent as well. It is inconceive- 
 able that a ruling King should be living outside his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Many teleologists are thus modifying their attitude 
 somewhat and are advocating what might be called an 
 
74 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 immanent teleology. The problem of an intelligent 
 principle guiding all existing forms to the highest ends 
 possible, easily finds its solution in a spiritual system 
 of reality. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS AND EVOLUTION 
 
 Then, too, a spiritualistic program helps with the 
 problem of evolution. It is a well-known fact that the 
 discovery of this theory has revolutionized science. 
 Modern thought is strongly inclined to a belief in crea- 
 tive evolution, and this principle being true, its cause 
 can hardly be found in a cold system of materialism. 
 Generally speaking, there seems to be a missing link 
 in evolution. If one is willing to stay on the outside 
 and simply take facts as they come, then probably a 
 general mechanical theory of evolution will suffice. 
 
 There are those who would follow in the footsteps 
 of Hobbes and apply a mechanical interpretation even 
 to the facts of the mind, thus reducing all mental phe- 
 nomena to a system of physics. But this method would 
 force us to live in a lifeless age, similar, for instance, 
 to that outlined in Pearson's Grammar of Science, 
 And also, a system such as this fails to account 
 for the richness and reality of human experiences. No 
 human being would be satisfied to live in a world 
 which could offer only hypotheses. Thus we cannot 
 afford unreservedly to adopt a system which can only 
 say "it happens so every time," mere chance, and then 
 stop with that. 
 
 The evolution of progress can find no justification 
 in the realm of chance; nor can it be explained by a 
 
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF ENERGY 75 
 
 system of mechanism. It is when we place spirit at 
 the bottom of the whole evolutionary process that evo- 
 lution becomes more reasonable and complete; and a 
 satisfactory explanation of its inner working is given, 
 for we have thus introduced tJie possibility of a vitalis- 
 tic, knowing quality. 
 
Chapter II 
 
 HISTORICAL SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL 
 THEORY 
 
 Early in our work a study was made of the philos- 
 ophy of those men in whose systems could be found a 
 strong dynamic element, the purpose being to show 
 that from the beginning of philosophical inquiry an 
 energetic interpretation of reality has characterized 
 many of the strongest systems. Now we shall pass in 
 review some of those writers whose conceptions are 
 distinctively spiritual, confirming our attitude that 
 many of the best students working with the problem 
 of reality interpret it spiritually, thus helping to estab- 
 lish the hypothesis that energy operates as a spiritual 
 force. 
 
 LEIBNITZ 
 
 In Leibnitz* philosophy we have what is perhaps the 
 most elaborate spiritual system ever formulated. His 
 interpretation of reality has already been presented, 
 because of its dynamic, energetic qualities, suggesting 
 a close relationship to the energy concept. As our 
 immediate interest now has to do with the qualitative 
 aspects of this concept, his theory is re-stated some- 
 what in detail, from the angle of its spiritual import. 
 
 Leibnitz resolves everything into centers of psychic, 
 spiritual force which are without parts, extension or 
 
 76 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 77 
 
 form and are indivisible and immaterial. In the Atom- 
 ism of that day these little units were material but with 
 Leibnitz they were distinctively spiritual. These "sim- 
 ple substances'' constitute ultimate reality; they differ 
 from each other in quality but not in quantity, 1 each 
 being self-sufficient and a little world unto itself. This 
 is somewhat similar to the modern idea of the atom 
 which elsewhere we have likened to an independent lit- 
 tle solar system. 
 
 Not only are the highest types of being concerned, 
 but the very substance of all reality is found in these 
 psychical, spiritual units. The lowest classification is 
 to be found in minerals, plants, etc., and here the cen- 
 ters of force are called monads. Here we meet percep- 
 tion just the same, but it is not clear or conscious, the 
 grade of thought being something like a stupor. Also 
 here as in all forms of being each monad has in itself 
 a principle of striving to a higher condition of activity 
 or perception. The clearness of perception is not only 
 proportionate to the activity of the monads but condi- 
 tions their grade or classification. The confused per- 
 ception of the lowest state is illustrated by the wave 
 sounds of the sea; we know that each wave makes its 
 individual contribution to the general sound, yet it is 
 impossible to perceive them separately, the attempt re- 
 sulting in confused perception. This is the characteris- 
 tic thought life of minerals and plants. 
 
 The psychical, "simple substances," fundamental in 
 all Nature, whose perception is more distinct and as- 
 sociated with feeling and memory are called souls. 
 Memory which is the sign of consciousness is the dif- 
 
 1 Latta, Leibnitz: the Monadology, p. 221 ff. 
 
78 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ferentiating factor between the lowest types of being 
 and animal life. 
 
 Human beings have a clear perception and thus live 
 in a higher scale of being. Having reason and knowl- 
 edge, they can come to a knowledge of themselves and 
 even of God. This quality in man is called rational 
 soul or mind. There is just one Being who 
 experiences the full power of perception, God, who is 
 infinite and absolutely perfect. Thus we see the whole 
 universe to be alive with thought, the principle of per- 
 ception prevailing from the most insignificant thing up 
 to God. 
 
 In his "Monadology" then Leibnitz has built up a 
 vast, closely woven system of spiritualism. All reality 
 roots itself in psychical centers of force. These, while in- 
 dividually self-sufficient, together constitute all Nature. 
 In the smallest portion of matter there is a large group 
 of these active, living monads. "Each portion of mat- 
 ter may be conceived as like a garden full of plants 
 and like a pond full of fishes. But each branch of 
 every plant, each member of every animal, each drop 
 of its liquid parts is also some such garden or pond." 2 
 Each living body has its central or ruling monad. 
 Then each member of this living body is full of living 
 creatures clustering about a central monad or soul. 
 These little particles surrounding the ruling soul con- 
 tinually but slowly change, thus never giving the soul 
 an entirely new body, while the soul itself does not 
 change. The central monad is always associated with 
 some such body of changing creatures, God being the 
 
 2 Latta, Leibnitz: the Monadology, p. 256 ff. 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 79 
 
 only Spirit free from a body. No matter then to what 
 forms of being we might appeal, spiritual centers of 
 force are found to be fundamental to all reality. 
 
 HEGEL 
 
 In Hegel's philosophy ''everything is spirit; spirit is 
 everything." The ultimate essence of the universe , its 
 true reality is found in this self -operating, inner spirit- 
 ual principle which is fundamental to all Nature. 
 Spirit finds expression in three forms, subjective, ob- 
 jective, and absolute, covering the entire field of activ- 
 ities. 
 
 The subjective spirit strives through the power of 
 the will to bring the spiritual life of the individual to 
 that place of experience where it is free and independ- 
 ent of its environment, and is not satisfied until it 
 reaches the goal of its ambition. The objective spirit 
 is identical with the spiritual life finding expression in 
 the everyday phases and functions of life. Here the 
 will asserts itself in the forms and customs common 
 to human relationships. In a particular institution, 
 for instance, we have a single manifestation of the all- 
 pervading spirit. The absolute spirit is the blending of 
 the subjective and objective spirit. Here we have an 
 active, unifying consciousness, absolute reality itself. 
 All differences between subjective and objective ex- 
 periences fade away. This self-assertive, absolute 
 spirit moves up into satisfied realization chiefly through 
 the forms afforded by the fields of art, religion, and 
 philosophy. 
 
80 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 WUNDT 
 
 Wundt has built up a system of idealism, which re- 
 minds us somewhat of Leibnitz' theory of monads. 
 Leibnitz made his monads centers of perception while 
 Wundt makes his units of will. Here we do not hear 
 so much about matter, substance, mind, and soul, but 
 speak in terms of ideas, psychical processes, will units. 
 His whole system is built around the activities of the 
 will, for it is the only thing of which we are definitely 
 sure. "There is absolutely nothing outside of man, 
 nor in him, which he can call fully and wholly his own, 
 except his will." 
 
 All experiences cluster about the will, not because 
 there is an external initiating force, but because in the 
 will and only in the will itself there is a spontaneity 
 of activity which is responsible for all relationships. 
 The organization of activities toward ends originates 
 and is sustained by the psychical processes representing 
 the will. 
 
 God is the universal Will and its objectivation is 
 the realization of itself in the will units of the world, 
 in which there is an opposition of activity and pas- 
 sivity, constituting ultimate reality. It is only as 
 every will is related to wills that this reciprocal rela- 
 tionship is obtained and it is only in these reciprocal 
 experiences, which offer an explanation for the pas- 
 sive state, that we have reality. 
 
 SCHOPENHAUER 
 
 To get Schopenhauer's idea of the qualitative as- 
 pects of reality we must understand what an important 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 81 
 
 place he gives to will. He would say the very essence 
 of life is the will. This principle will is inherent and 
 dominant not only in man but in all things. It is the 
 guiding, driving force in the general process of evolu- 
 tion. In the principle of selection which seems to be 
 operating all the time, it is the will which causes cer- 
 tain parts of the organisms to grow and adjust them- 
 selves for particular duties while at the same time al- 
 lowing others to die. For instance, some animals are 
 equipped with instruments for fighting and killing, be- 
 cause that is what they will to do. The will not only aids 
 in the organization of the organisms but enjoys a pre- 
 existence in relation to them. Amid all those things 
 which come and go, it is the abiding fact. All things 
 are the product of the will. The world is but this 
 principle realizing its great ends. The will is much 
 greater than the phenomenal world which is just the 
 object of thought; it is greater than thought which is 
 simply its by-product. This striving principle then, 
 which is reality for Schopenhauer, must be given a set- 
 ting in spiritualism far above everything that partakes 
 of the material. 
 
 The philosophy of Plato is presented at this time in 
 our study of energy, not because it is energetic but 
 because his elaborate system of idealism makes a large 
 contribution toward the unfolding of our immediate 
 problem — showing that reality is to be interpreted 
 spiritually. 
 
 In Plato, the first and greatest idealist, we meet an 
 
82 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 exalted and beautiful system which believes there are 
 higher realities than matter and motion and the world 
 of sense perception. "Plato points up, Aristotle 
 down." Most fundamental in his philosophy is the 
 search for ultimate and absolute values, the abiding 
 and unchanging elements in the flux of phenomena. 
 Plato believed with Browning that there is a right 
 ever right and a wrong ever wrong. 
 
 True knowledge does not come to us by way of the 
 senses. Such knowledge, often being deceiving, is 
 simply opinion. The highest type, the scientific, comes 
 from the mind through thought and reason. Matter 
 is not the reality of the world. Plato would say with 
 James that the world of wind and weather is not the 
 real world. Outside the scope of the senses is another 
 realm, a spiritual world, the realm of "deals, of values. 
 It is possible for us to rise above the world of shadows 
 into this realm of being, into the real world of ideas. 
 
 With Plato, ideas only are real; all else is simply ap- 
 pearance. These ideas are incorporeal, immaterial, but 
 are hardly psychical or spiritual according to the mod- 
 ern interpretation of these terms, ideas belonging to 
 even a higher state of being than the psychical or spirit- 
 ual. He would place the psychical functions in the 
 world of Becoming and would place ideas in the realm 
 of Being. Ideas are not necessarily in the mind but 
 are essences, ideals, the highest and best being those 
 of the Good. In this program ei 60? is that something 
 which science has been eagerly striving to know, real- 
 ity itself. "The world of true reality is but never be- 
 comes; the world of relative reality becomes but never 
 is. 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 83 
 
 "The unfathomable depth of human personality is 
 essentially Plato's doctrine." Reality is divine and the 
 soul is akin to it. The Soul is a simple, incorporeal 
 being belonging both to the world of ideas and the 
 world of sensuous material change, but belongs pri- 
 marily to the higher world. It is the principle of life 
 and motion. 
 
 Hence Plato is considered the father of idealism, and 
 as over against mechanical force, he makes intelligence 
 to be the real moving power in the world. This places 
 him in the forefront of those who have taught the pres- 
 ence of the invisible soul operating in Nature, and who 
 have given an interpretation of reality diametrically 
 opposed to materialism. 
 
 SYSTEMS PARTIALLY SPIRITUALISTIC 
 
 There are four important systems of thought which 
 probably have no definite place in a program whose 
 chief immediate interest is in trying to show that all 
 things are of a spiritual nature, even the very world of 
 "material phenomena" — Aristotle, the Stoics, Des- 
 cartes, and Kant. Especially is this true of the Stoics 
 who were really materialists and of Descartes with 
 whom mind and matter are equally real. And while 
 these systems, by no means make spirit all of reality 
 and cannot even approach being classified as spiritualis- 
 tic, we mention them here, parenthetically, to show 
 how unable were the leaders in these schools of thought 
 to complete their systems without giving a "real" place 
 to spirit. This is particularly true of Kant's philosophy, 
 but let us first examine Aristotle. 
 
54 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ARISTOTLE 
 
 To understand Aristotle's philosophy of reality it is 
 necessary to know his meaning of tyvxrj because it is 
 to this that he gives supreme place in all life and 
 activity. With him tpvxy (breath) is more than we 
 mean by soul; it really represents what is wrapped 
 up in the terms Life and Mind, and we have no Eng- 
 lish word which can represent the combined thought. 
 Sometimes it is called Vital Principle, sometimes Soul. 
 This Vital Principle, though there is just one, has its 
 representation in every part of the body. It and the 
 body are not one, but they so relate themselves to 
 each other as to constitute a unity. As Life finds its 
 highest expression in Mind, so the chief characteristic 
 of the Soul or Vital Principle is thought. 
 
 This Vital Principle is the essence of Life. It is "the 
 original reality of a natural body endowed with po- 
 tential life. . . . If then there be any general formula 
 for every kind of Vital Principle it is — the primary 
 reality of an organism." 3 It is a vitalizing influence, 
 not only holding the body together but constituting the 
 energy of the body. This is true not only of man but 
 also of all animals and plants as well. In plants and 
 all such simple organisms the Vital Principle is of a 
 lower degree of vitality. Aristotle was not sure 
 whether this Soul experiences self-activity or is moved 
 by some outside force, but if the latter be true the 
 operation of the outside influence is possible only 
 through the sensations as a medium. So we find his 
 
 s Aristotle, Lewes, p. 231. 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 85 
 
 *P V XV , "the breath of life" as a "primary reality/' to 
 be not only dynamic but also spiritual. 
 
 STOICS 
 
 Even in the Stoics a spiritual strain is seen running 
 through their idea of the real. In matter we find 
 Spirit; in the world, God. In fact the world and God 
 seem to constitute something of an identity, God being 
 a vital element pervading all things, the very Soul of 
 the world. God, however, is not made to be so gen- 
 eral as to rule out his individual consciousness. Be- 
 tween all things enjoying a conscious soul life there 
 is a definite relationship, closer than that which they 
 experience with lower types of creation. The Stoics 
 would not only say that everything outside of God is 
 his body but that all these things came from his own 
 self and thither will return again. God being a soul, 
 then everything can be traced in its origin to a soul 
 life, and must partake somewhat of the qualities of the 
 great Spirit. 
 
 DESCARTES 
 
 With Descartes the fundamental principle is con- 
 scious thought. He seems to have brushed all ,else 
 aside as uncertain and gave to philosophy a new start- 
 ing point. He would say we cannot build our system 
 of philosophy on things external which we do not 
 know. Only those things "which are clearly and dis- 
 
86 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 tinctly perceived are true." Cogito, ergo sum — I 
 think, therefore I am. The fact that I think establishes 
 the thinker as a certainty. Even in doubting we have 
 evidence of a thinking doubter. We can doubt every- 
 thing else but not the doubter, of which we are certainly 
 conscious. Thus consciousness becomes the criterion 
 of knowledge, and the thinking, psychical being is the 
 only certain, and the most real, thing in all the world. 
 Thus according to Descartes the successful search for 
 real values, ultimate reality, leads into the field of 
 psychical interpretation. 
 
 KANT 
 
 At first, Kant's philosophy seems to be a system of 
 mere phenomena. We begin with the presupposition 
 that the real things of the world are those which are 
 objects of sense. We find then that these are phenom- 
 ena only. It is soon seen, however, that Kant is not 
 willing to stop here. Since the mind is not satisfied 
 with less than a complete whole and since knowledge 
 does not give this to us, we are compelled to base our 
 hopes on an investigation of moral consciousness. In 
 this search Kant is led to feel sure that back of phe- 
 nomena there is a world of ultimate reality and his in- 
 vestigation into the nature and limits of knowledge 
 shows to him the possibility of a noumenal self which 
 is free and untrammeled. He calls this the "thing in 
 itself" (Ding an sich), that something which is left 
 after everything with which the senses and knowledge 
 have to do is brushed aside. Although it can be in- 
 terpreted only by a divine intelligence we know there 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 87 
 
 is a "thing in itself" because there must be an objective 
 something which causes our sensations. The fact that 
 we may not understand noumenal things does not at 
 all exclude the possibility of their existence. 
 
 What is this noumenal something, this "thing in it- 
 self" which lies beyond the world of sense and knowl- 
 edge? Is it the "I think" which as "an act of spon- 
 taneity, cannot possibly be due to sense," 4 and "which 
 because of its spontaneous activity, is the only thing 
 to which we may possibly attribute noumenal 
 reality" ? 4 Is it the will which with Kant is the only 
 absolutely good thing in the world and which is good 
 because it wills to be good? These two, the "I think" 
 and the will are identical, for to both he attributes the 
 qualities of complete noumena. "This spontaneous 
 activity, the 'I think' of the Critique of Pure Reason is 
 nothing else than the autonomous will (final reality) 
 of the Metaphysic of Morality and the later 
 Critiques." 5 And it is in the doctrine of the primacy 
 of the will we meet the real Kant; with him the will 
 stands for absolute values. Thus with Kant the realm 
 of real things reaches beyond the world of material 
 phenomena, into the richer world of psychical relation- 
 ships. 
 
 BERGSON 
 
 We now come to Bergson and find him teaching a 
 system of philosophy which offers genuine support to 
 a spiritualistic program. In the first Part it was found 
 
 4 Watson's Selections from Kant, p. 65. 
 
 5 Schreiber, Kant's Theory of the Primacy of the Will, p. 28. 
 
88 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 that Bergson introduced into his conception of reality 
 a dynamic element which he called the vital impetus. 
 At that time we were satisfied with the discovery of 
 this single fact, but now we want to get his idea of 
 this vitalistic quality which is so fundamental to life. 
 So from a qualitative standpoint we shall probe deeper 
 into his philosophy of reality to see if it is not of a 
 psychical order. 
 
 In his Creative Evolution is met the belief that 
 every moment brings something new into existence. 
 "Reality appears as a ceaseless up-springing of some- 
 thing new, which has no sooner arisen to make the pres- 
 ent than it has already fallen back into the past." 6 
 Life is one continuous process of Becoming; it "is a 
 tendency, and the essence of a tendency is to develop in 
 the form of a sheaf, creating by its very growth, di- 
 vergent directions among which its impetus is di- 
 vided." 7 
 
 Fundamental in this process of development is the 
 original impetus of life which passes from one genera- 
 tion of germs to another. This is the inner directing 
 principle, the ultimately real factor that drives all 
 things to an activity and not only carries life but is the 
 essence of all life. This vital principle takes matter 
 and shapes it. "Life had to enter thus into the habits 
 of inert matter in order to draw it little by little, mag- 
 netized, as it were, to another track. The animate 
 forms that first appeared were therefore of extreme 
 simplicity. They were probably tiny masses of scarcely 
 differentiated protoplasm, outwardly resembling the 
 
 6 Creative Evolution, p. 47. 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 99. 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 89 
 
 amoeba observable to-day, but possessed of the tremen- 
 dous internal push that was to raise them even to the 
 highest forms of life. That in virtue of this push the 
 first organisms sought to grow as much as possible, 
 seems likely." s But the matter with which the origi- 
 nal impetus has to work is not a hard, cold substance. 
 Characterized by a "tendency," an ascending move- 
 ment, matter finds itself susceptible to the guiding, 
 shaping influence of the vital impetus. 
 
 In trying to find an image that will give us an idea 
 of this impetus Bergson has to leave the physical world 
 and go to the psychical. Consciousness becomes for 
 him the motive principle in all development. He says 
 that "if our analysis is correct, it is consciousness, or 
 rather supra-consciousness, that is at the origin of 
 life." 9 Consciousness then, which is real life, is the 
 representation of that vital principle which pervades 
 all things. We are told that there is a consciousness 
 slumbering in instinct, which if finding expression 
 through knowledge instead of action would reveal to 
 us the deepest secrets of life. In his Creative Evolu- 
 tion we hear him say that "real duration is to be 
 found in the realm of life and consciousness" and in 
 his Introduction to Metaphysics he says that "real 
 duration is of a psychical nature." Thus we are not 
 surprised to hear him say that "in reality, life is of the 
 psychological order, and it is of the essence of the 
 psychical to enfold a confused plurality of interpene- 
 trating forms." In summing up it can be said that 
 "he sees as the mystic sees, that the Elan Vital is the 
 energy of one Being which makes matter its means of 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 99. 9 Ibid., p. 257. 
 
90 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 manifestation, its vehicle, its tool. He sees that the 
 process of Becoming is a spiritual process of ascen- 
 sion/' 10 
 
 Corroboration of this interpretation of Bergson is 
 found in the Preface to Carr's translation of Mind- 
 Energy. After saying that Bergson went over the 
 material very carefully with him in order to give the 
 translation the same authority as the original French, 
 Carr then says that "the separate articles here collected 
 and selected . . . are chosen by M. Bergson with the 
 view of illustrating his concept that reality is funda- 
 mentally a spiritual activity" X1 
 
 EUCKEN AND ROYCE 
 
 In Eucken and Royce we have two men who have 
 strongly represented a philosophy of spiritualism, both 
 of whose systems have a distinctly religious bent. 
 Royce is convinced that true reality is spiritual in its 
 nature and that the ultimate ground of things is an 
 eternal, divine world-order. "From the constant in- 
 teraction of minds he infers the existence of an eternal, 
 divine being which is spiritual and eternal." 12 Royce 
 thinks "we have no right whatever to speak of really 
 unconscious Nature, but only of uncommunicative Na- 
 ture," and when we deal with Nature we "deal with a 
 vast realm of finite consciousness of which our own 
 is at once a part and an example." 13 
 
 10 Sinclair, Defense of Idealism, p. 288. (Italics are mine.) 
 
 11 Carr, Preface to Bergson's Mind-Energy, p. v. (Italics are 
 mine.) 
 
 12 Jerusalem, Introduction to Philosophy, pp. 150-151. 
 
 13 Royce, The World and the Individual, pp. 225-226. 
 
SUPPORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL THEORY 91 
 
 Eucken looks within the thinking creature for the 
 source of reality. "It is impossible to hide from our- 
 selves that Nature, as we see it, does not come to us 
 from the outside as a ready-made fact, but that it 
 starts from our own thinking, and under the influence 
 of our intellectual organization, takes on the shape in 
 which it lies before us." 14 He teaches a monism which 
 is really an important process, deeper than and funda- 
 mental to both materialism and spiritualism. Eucken 
 lifts his philosophy into the realm of life itself and life 
 becomes "a transformation of reality into a whole 
 endowed with soul." This resultant, vital process 
 becomes the goal and reality of life, because in itself 
 complete satisfaction and fullness are realized. In this 
 real activity the revivifying, guiding, controlling ele- 
 ment is the spiritual which enjoys perfection and com- 
 pleteness only as it masters matter. 
 
 So in all the systems which we have reviewed, the 
 search for truth about reality takes us past things ma- 
 terial and points with strong emphasis to the realm of 
 the spiritual. And that something which Plato calls 
 ideas, Leibnitz monads, Schopenhauer will, Bergson 
 the vital impetus, and which we are calling energy is 
 to be interpreted as a spiritual force. 
 
 14 Eucken, The Life of the Spirit, p. 188. (Translation by 
 Pogson.) 
 
Chapter III 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION- 
 CONCLUDED 
 
 Since we have found that all physical reality is 
 energy, and then further set forth the hypothesis that 
 the ultimate quality of energy is psychical, we would 
 seem to be in position to interpret the well-known facts 
 regarding the influence of the mind upon the body in 
 a new and seemingly satisfactory way — making the 
 mind and body to be parts of one vast system of psychi- 
 cal energy. Hitherto this whole problem has per- 
 plexed thinkers from Descartes to the present, and as 
 yet the effect of the mind upon the body has not been 
 consistently explained. A thorough-going dualism, 
 even though it has been resuscitated by McDougall, 1 
 is repugnant to the law of continuity, which evolution 
 has so greatly strengthened. 
 
 After finding spiritualism able to make a definite 
 contribution toward a better understanding of such 
 significant problems as creation, vitalism, teleology, 
 and evolution; and finding in the history of thought 
 such strong support for the spiritualistic interpreta- 
 tion, it probably would be in order at this place in our 
 program of showing that energy is spiritual, to intro- 
 duce as a genuine presupposition a psychic element 
 active in all Nature. It may be, however, that the ma- 
 terialist would still challenge our right to this assump- 
 
 1 McDougall, Body and Mind. 
 
 92 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 93 
 
 tion, saying that our source of explanation is not suf- 
 ficiently criticized. Then we might reply by placing 
 the burden of proof with the individual of this atti- 
 tude and assign to him the more difficult task of show- 
 ing why, if all Nature is not endowed with a psychic 
 quality, it acts so much like it ; why it seems that 
 
 "Every clod feels a stir of might, 
 An instinct within that reaches and towers; 
 And groping blindly above it for light, 
 Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers." 
 
 But this method of procedure would get us no place 
 in particular. So before drawing conclusions we shall 
 need to look at our problem a little further. 
 
 Our work here in dealing with the qualitative as- 
 pects of energy, which we are calling reality, cannot 
 be taken into the laboratory and handled as an ordinary 
 scientific problem. We must search for facts in sys- 
 tems of thought and test these beliefs by their practi- 
 cal consequences, judging not by laws, customs, or 
 principles but by fruits. We have already done this in 
 a general way in the case of such facts as creation, vi- 
 talism, teleology, and evolution. 
 
 In this chapter it will be our plan first to examine 
 the relationship between mind and body. From this 
 investigation it will seem probably true that the mind 
 is the ultimately guiding, determining, and original 
 factor figuring in these relationships. While there 
 may be evidence denying the priority of mind this 
 excursus will at least make it impossible, seemingly, to 
 doubt the existence of a psychical element. Then later 
 we shall apply the attitude of representative modern 
 
94 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 thought to our hypothesis, trying further to show that 
 psychical energy is a fact, that it is universal and the 
 only reality, and finally suggest a theory of reality on 
 the basis of organized units of psychical energy. If 
 ancient and modern thought, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, declares itself in favor of our hypothesis it is 
 because the belief in psychical reality has stood the 
 test; and if the converging lines of testimony in its 
 favor are sufficient, then it should be regarded as true. 
 
 THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM 
 
 It is very clear that science is not willing to stop with 
 the well-established hypothesis which says, no psych- 
 osis without a neurosis. Thus we want to go beneath 
 this, if possible, and get a clew concerning this rela- 
 tionship between the mind and body. In the first place 
 we shall introduce the part which will plays in de- 
 termining the issues of the bodily functions. As we 
 proceed it is seen that in a large measure Kant was 
 right in believing we can do what we will to do. 
 
 The field is large from which could be culled facts 
 having to do with the power of the will over the body, 
 but from a multiplicity of experiences we mention 
 simply the case of an individual who is severely ill, 
 life being in the very balance. By sheer determination 
 to live, sufficient vitality is thrown on the side of life, 
 and will becomes the determining factor, cheating death 
 of its victim. A leading physician at one of the large 
 camps during the influenza epidemic declared that the 
 large number of deaths was due to the fact that the 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 95 
 
 men being away from home, many for the first time, 
 and being afraid, "gave up" instead of exercising a 
 will power to live. 
 
 It is remarkable what influence the attention has 
 been found to have on sensations. When setting our- 
 selves to the task it is possible to think into being a 
 large variety of sensation experiences. For instance, 
 when the attention is concentrated on the hand we can 
 feel sensations glide from warm to cold, numbness, 
 pins and needles, etc., just as the mind dictates. In 
 remembering the sensation associated with eating an 
 unpeeled peach, the teeth are set on edge just the same 
 as in the actual experience. Some would dismiss all 
 this by saying that it is subjective, just imagination, 
 but facts encourage us to believe with Tuke that "there 
 is a real effect produced upon the finger if thought is 
 sufficiently long directed to it, and that these vascular 
 changes are felt in the form of throbbing, weight, 
 etc." 2 
 
 Science sees also a direct relationship between the 
 emotions and the secretive processes. It has been found 
 that glands will often secrete freely when there is no 
 immediate cause other than some irregular mental ac- 
 tivity, like imagination. It has been noticed that the 
 mammary glands of a nursing mother will often se- 
 crete milk when she thinks of feeding the child. Also 
 it is a well-known fact that mental strain will cause 
 the hair to turn gray in a very short time. 
 
 It naturally follows that the emotions are being 
 closely associated with the work of the digestive ap- 
 
 2 Tuke, Influence of the Mind upon the Body, p. 57. 
 
96 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 paratus, as they assist or retard the necessary secre- 
 tions. The emotions cannot only paralyze the activi- 
 ties of the stomach but have a direct influence on the 
 entire Alimentary Canal. This is the reason why chil- 
 dren should not be fed after being punished or experi- 
 encing excitement of any kind. Perhaps the secretions 
 of the salivary glands are most noticeably affected by 
 the emotions. And just as the mouth becomes dry or 
 saliva flows freely according to the emotion experi- 
 enced, we get a good idea of how the other secretions, 
 such as gastric and pancreatic juices and bile, are influ- 
 enced by these psychic states. It is not strange then 
 that indigestion in many cases has been traced in its 
 origin to psychic irregularities. 
 
 Cannon tells about some very interesting experi- 
 ments performed on dogs by Pawlow, showing the 
 direct and immediate influence of psychic states on the 
 secretions. 3 In the dog's stomach a side pouch was 
 made, wholly apart from the main cavity where the 
 food entered the stomach. This part which was under 
 observation was representative of the entire stomach. 
 In some cases during this experiment an opening was 
 made in the esophagus so that the food being chewed 
 and swallowed would pass out through the opening and 
 not reach the stomach at all. This was called "sham 
 feeding." In this way all the pleasure of eating was 
 experienced without the food getting any further than 
 the esophagus. It was found that about five minutes 
 after the dogs enjoyed the food and went through the 
 process of swallowing, the gastric juice began to flow 
 
 3 Cannon, Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage, p. 
 4ff. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 97 
 
 from the pouch in the stomach. This continued as 
 long as the dogs ate food and for a short time after 
 the meal was eaten. One very interesting thing ob- 
 served was that while pleasure encouraged the flow of 
 gastric juice, anger or fright had the opposite effect, 
 which confirms our statement made above, that certain 
 emotions can check secretions and thus interfere with 
 the digestion of food. Cannon says that "since the 
 flow occurred only when the dogs had an appetite, and 
 the material presented to them was agreeable, the con- 
 clusion was justified that this was a true psychic secre- 
 tion." 4 
 
 The emotions have been found to affect the heart 
 also. It will beat faster as it contracts irregularly, if 
 the individual is frightened. Dying of a "broken 
 heart" as the result of worry and sadness is no mere 
 figure of speech. On the other hand the heart often 
 has been too severely strained by the sudden announce- 
 ment of good news, resulting in death in many cases. 
 
 Mental strain has its definite effects on the liver and 
 kidneys. One scientist says that a depressed mind, if 
 of a sufficient duration of time, will actually change 
 the structure of the liver. In the Medical Times and 
 Gazette is published the findings of Dr. Byasson in a 
 test made of the renal secretion passed under condi- 
 tions of normal quiet and cerebral activity. The sum- 
 mary is as follows : 5 
 
 (i) "The exercise of thought was followed by an 
 increase in the amount of urine." 
 
 4 Ibid., pp. 5-6. 
 
 5 Quoted from Tuke, p. 135. 
 
98 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ( 2 ) "The amount o f urea was augmented in a marked 
 manner, there being about a drachm more on the day 
 of cerebral work than on that of repose." 
 
 (3) "A slight but uniform increase in the amount 
 of phosphates and sulphates during mental activity." 
 
 (4) "The density, acidity, the uric acid, lime, mag- 
 nesia and potash were scarcely affected. Chlorine was 
 less in amount." 
 
 Dr. Byasson states that by a single analysis of the 
 urine he is able to tell whether the individual has spent 
 the day in repose or mental activity, the diet and en- 
 vironment being the same for the three days of test. 6 
 
 In the category of facts which show the controlling 
 influence of the psychic states over the body there is 
 none more significant than the way emotional experi- 
 ences affect the activities of the blood. "Hemorrhage 
 is often increased by attention, but whether by excite- 
 ment to the heart's action or by direct influence on the 
 vessels of the part cannot easily be decided." The fact, 
 however concerns us here more than the method. It 
 seems that concentration of thought can send blood to 
 the place supposed to be affected. The stigmata of 
 St. Francis of Assisi has a place in this discussion. 
 Some may want to rule out this experience because it 
 seems to be so irregular and mysterious. But until 
 history can deny the fact it will stand as a remarkable 
 illustration of the influence of the mind upon the body. 
 
 Another case of stigmata mentioned by Tuke is that 
 of Louise Lateau. When M. Charbonnier presented 
 an article to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Bel- 
 gium, reviewing the case of Louise, this organization 
 
 6 Quoted from Tuke, p. 135. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 99 
 
 appointed a Commission to examine her before they 
 would accept the article for publication. This Com- 
 mission was to see if blood really did ooze from her 
 side, feet, hands, and forehead. The examination was 
 made while she was going through the experience and 
 the blood was flowing from her body. We cannot re- 
 view the case in detail here but simply state that the 
 conclusion reached by the Commission was that "the 
 stigmata and ecstasies are real. They can be explained 
 physiologically." 7 In the light of such facts as these 
 it is not hard to believe that in the agony of Gethsemane 
 Jesus sweat drops of blood. 
 
 One of the most specific effects of emotional ex- 
 perience on the blood is to be observed in the adrenal 
 glands pouring their secretions into the blood circula- 
 tion as the result of psychic excitation. Cannon and 
 D. de la Paz have performed experiments in their 
 laboratories clearly demonstrating this fact. The ani- 
 mal used was a cat. The method used for frightening 
 the cat was a barking dog which was allowed to enjoy 
 himself at a safe distance while the cat was securely 
 fastened in a holder. By a very careful operation 
 blood was secured from near the adrenal glands before 
 and after the fright of the cat and labeled "quiet 
 blood" and "excited blood." In the "excited blood" 
 was found a much larger amount of adrenalin. It was 
 also observed that the secretion of the adrenal glands 
 increased with emotions. Then the glands were re- 
 moved with the result that the blood was not then af- 
 fected with adrenalin. 
 
 The fact that during these psychic experiences the 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 119. 
 
100 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 adrenal glands shoot adrenalin into the blood is not the 
 whole lesson to be learned by any means. Cannon 
 would not feel that this is the "end" attained but sim- 
 ply the "means." We learn from him that injecting 
 adrenalin into the blood causes the liver to liberate 
 sugar into the blood; helps in a faster coagulation; 
 drives blood from abdominal viscera into heart, lungs, 
 central nervous system, and limbs; acts as an antidote 
 for muscular fatigue. So it seems from this and 
 other facts which have been set forth that psychic 
 activities touch in a concrete way the very last iota of 
 being in the body. In other words, psychical energy 
 seems to be a genuine fact, constituting the ultimately 
 guiding and determining factor in all human experi- 
 ences. 
 
 PSYCHICAL ENERGY AND MODERN THOUGHT 
 
 Perhaps from the foregoing it would seem reasona- 
 ble to believe that the ultimate quality of reality is 
 psychical or spiritual. But let us look at this problem 
 a little further, and, studying it in the light of recent 
 movements of thought, see if corroboration of our hy- 
 pothesis can be obtained. 
 
 DE TUNZELMANN 
 
 According to de Tunzelmann this hypothesis is the 
 only alternative. "Schemes have been propounded 
 with a view of accounting for the established order of 
 Nature without the assumption of a primal intelligence 
 ... no scheme of the kind has ever been presented 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 101 
 
 which would appear even superficially plausible to any 
 but untrained minds. ... In the present state of scien- 
 tific knowledge we are justified in maintaining that the 
 possibility of such a scheme is unthinkable. ... I 
 propose to introduce the concept of an all-pervading 
 universal mind or omnipresent intelligence forming an 
 entity even more fundamental than the all-pervading 
 ether." 8 
 
 BERGSON 
 
 In Bergson's philosophy there is a graded intelli- 
 gence which reaches below the animal kingdom. This 
 reminds us somewhat of Leibnitz' "confused percep- 
 tion" which is met in the lowest type of being. Berg- 
 son says : "The more the nervous system develops 
 . . . the clearer is the consciousness . . . the lower 
 we descend in the animal series the more the nervous 
 centers are simplified, till finally the nervous elements 
 disappear, merged in the mass of a less differentiated 
 organism. But it is the same with all the other appara- 
 tus, with all the other anatomical elements; and it 
 would be as absurd to refuse consciousness to an animal 
 because it has no brain as to declare it incapable of 
 nourishing itself because it has no stomach. . . . This 
 amounts to saying that the humblest organism is con- 
 scious in proportion to its power to move freely. We 
 should define the animal by sensibility and awakened 
 consciousness, the vegetable by consciousness asleep and 
 insensibility." 9 This together with the more elaborate 
 
 8 de Tunzelmann, The Electrical Theory and Problem of the 
 Universe, p. 454. 
 
 9 Creative Evolution, pp. 110-112. 
 
102 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 treatment of Bergson's philosophy in the chapter on 
 the history of thought leaves no uncertainty as to his 
 belief in psychical being. 
 
 PRAGMATISM 
 
 A similar attitude is met in modern pragmatism. In 
 this philosophical system "creative intelligence" is 
 championed — a pragmatic theory of intelligence. It 
 is an intelligence that "frees action from an instru- 
 mental character," that "frees experience from rou- 
 tine and caprice"; an intelligence that liberates and 
 liberalizes action; an intelligence that is "inherently 
 forward looking," which can forecast future possibili- 
 ties and can help toward the good. "A pragmatic in- 
 telligence is a creative intelligence, not a routine me- 
 chanic." 10 In this system the problem of reality is not 
 important and hence there is no attempted explanation 
 of this creative, evolutionary power. But since it has 
 the faculty of discerning the future and distinguishing 
 between the desirable and undesirable it must be in- 
 terpreted as having a psychical, spiritual nature. 11 
 
 PERRY 
 
 In Perry, an able member of the new realistic group, 
 there is evidence of a belief in the presence of psychical 
 reality. He says that "as a potentiality without as- 
 signable limits it (matter) may be reasonably endowed 
 
 10 Dewey, Creative Intelligence, pp. 63-66. 
 
 11 Compare Lovejoy's Article, Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 17 
 (1920), pp. 622-632. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 103 
 
 with intellectual force as with physical force." 12 Then 
 again, he says, "If it is impossible to construe the 
 world in terms of thought or in terms of moral life, 
 there yet remains a further conception, complete enough 
 to embrace these and every other possible value — the 
 conception of a universal spiritual life (geistiges 
 Leben) that shall be infinitely various and infinitely 
 rich." 13 It is not our purpose here to attempt any in- 
 terpretation. These statements are simply taken at 
 their face value. 
 
 THE IDEALISTS 
 
 What need be said concerning the presence of a spir- 
 itual reality in the recent systems of philosophy repre- 
 sented by Bowne, Royce, Ward, Richardson, Aliotta, 
 Howison, etc. ? To take away belief in a spiritual 
 agency would be taking the heart out of these philos- 
 ophies. And would it not be difficult to find a modern 
 system of thought in which psychical reality does not 
 loom up, consciously or unconsciously, as a significant 
 fact? 
 
 Here we have proposed to us all kinds of panpsych- 
 isms, pantheisms, pancalisms, etc., and hence all the 
 phenomenalistic theories of matter. A psychic quality 
 in all Nature, however, can hardly be said to be com- 
 plete panpsychism. These theories simply represent a 
 psychical principle running through all things. Ever 
 and anon we meet such beliefs which are looked upon 
 
 12 Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 69. 
 
 13 Ibid., p. 153. 
 
104 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 as panpsychic. In them there is usually the tendency 
 to interpret body as phenomenal, thus involving us in a 
 epistemological discussion which need not becloud the 
 issue. Etymologically speaking, panpsychism is that 
 theory which ascribes a psychical nature to the whole 
 of being, and should be equivalent to spiritualistic 
 monism. And in our endeavor to show, from the 
 standpoint of scientific attitude, that there is a psychi- 
 cal energy in all Nature, it is imperative that we keep 
 in mind that this is not our ultimate objective; al- 
 though dealt with in detail it is but a sub-station along 
 the way. As we proceed it will be seen that we are ad- 
 vocating that genuine panpsychism which says that all 
 reality is psychical or spiritual. 
 
 THE UNIVERSALITY OF PSYCHICAL REALITY 
 
 The criticism may possibly be made here that the 
 converging lines of testimony which have been offered 
 in this chapter and elsewhere to show the presence of 
 a psychical, spiritual reality, have to do primarily with 
 the higher forms of being in the organic world. But it 
 is the belief of many students that the law of analogy 
 can be brought into play in this case, and what is true 
 of life in the organic world will hold good for all 
 forms of being; and as the so-called physical has been 
 found to be, seemingly, a medium through which the 
 psychical finds expression, it is reasonable to believe 
 that this principle prevails in all Nature, holding good 
 even throughout the inorganic world. 
 
 The attitude represented in the preceding paragraph 
 has the strong backing of science. The law of con- 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 105 
 
 tinuity pertains not only to certain types but reaches 
 from the lowest to the highest forms of being, and no 
 one can safely attempt to annul this law by postulating 
 a line of demarcation between the inorganic and the 
 organic worlds. 
 
 Clifford is very definite in his support of this atti- 
 tude. He says that "as we go back along the line, the 
 complexity of the organism and its nerve-action in- 
 sensibly diminishes; and for the first part of our 
 course we see reason to think that the complexity of 
 consciousness insensibly diminishes also. But if we 
 make a jump, say to the tunicate molluscs, we see no 
 reason there to infer the existence of consciousness at 
 all. Yet not only is it impossible to point out a place 
 where any sudden break takes place, but it is contrary 
 to all the natural training of our minds to suppose a 
 breach of continuity so great. . . . But as the line of 
 ascent is unbroken, and must end at last in inorganic 
 matter, we have no choice but to admit that every mo- 
 tion of matter is simultaneous with some ejective fact 
 or event which might be part of a consciousness." 14 
 
 De Tunzeimann also would give a place to the psychi- 
 cal element not only in animal life but in all Nature as 
 well. He says "there is no way of evading the con- 
 clusion that a determining cause must be sought for 
 beyond the molecular scheme. There is one and 
 only one such course known to us — our own will or 
 mind; and the fundamental principles of scientific in- 
 vestigation lead us therefore to seek in the extension 
 of mind for the determination of the molecular scheme, 
 and further, of the whole order of Nature. We find 
 
 14 Clifford, Lectures and Essays, pp. 283-284. 
 
106 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 that the mental scheme, introduced simply as a work- 
 ing hypothesis, proves satisfactory at every point 
 where the molecular scheme is found to be insufficient, 
 and the attempt to ignore it in the development of any 
 scheme attempting to account for the order of Nature, 
 will invariably be found to necessitate its introduction 
 in some disguised and unscientific manner, which very 
 commonly takes the form of personifying natural law, 
 one of the worst of pseudo-scientific absurdities." 15 
 
 Royce very earnestly argues against setting the 
 lower types of being off to themselves and denying to 
 them psychical activities. He says the doctrine of evo- 
 lution helps to bridge the gulf between the two extremes 
 in Nature — mind and matter. "Between what seems 
 to us, from our ordinary social point of view the high- 
 est of accessible mental life, and what we take to be 
 the manifestations of lifeless matter, there is, in the 
 process of mental evolution apparently no breach of 
 continuity anywhere. ... It is precisely this ap- 
 parent continuity which is the most impressive of all 
 the inductions that the study of evolution has lately 
 forced upon the attention of all who have taken Na- 
 ture at all seriously." 16 "When we see inorganic 
 Nature seemingly dead, there is, in fact, conscious life 
 just as surely as there is any Being present in Nature 
 at all." 17 
 
 The same elements are represented in minerals, 
 plants, and animals; they are simply organized differ- 
 ently. Minerals get their subsistence by feeding on 
 materials about them in just as real a sense as the 
 
 15 de Tunzelmann, p. 461. 
 
 16 Royce, The World and the Individual, Vol. I, p. 210. 
 
 17 Ibid., p. 240. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 107 
 
 highest developed forms of life, only the method is 
 more crude. There is a general process of feeding 
 going all the time. It is a very fundamental fact in 
 agriculture that the soil gets its nourishment from 
 plants, animals, etc. Plants depend for nourishment 
 on the air, moisture, and soil. Animals in turn feed 
 on plants and other animals. Most plants, however, 
 "feed at a lower chemical level than do animals." "It 
 has been recognized that the beech-tree feeds and 
 grows, digests and breathes, as really as does the squir- 
 rel on its branches : that in regard to none of the main- 
 functions (except excretion, which plants have little 
 of) is there any essential difference." 18 
 
 In science illustrations of analogy are not wanting 
 which show that the same deep principles which pre- 
 vail in the organic world are found in the inorganic 
 as well. We see this analogy in the fact that if a 
 block of any one of the thousand minerals known to 
 science, quartz for instance, were broken into myriads 
 of pieces, every particle would be found to be a perfect 
 crystal, just the same as the original, which suggests 
 a similarity to the fact that if a starfish were torn into 
 shreds, every piece would regenerate itself and form a 
 starfish again. If we were to take this same piece of 
 quartz and put it into running water it would become 
 sand-grains. If then these sand-grains were put in 
 the proper environment where they would have access 
 to food, they would regenerate themselves and go back 
 to crystal forms. 
 
 Science discusses this whole question as the tendency 
 of all things, inorganic as well as organic, to adjust 
 
 18 Thomson and Geddes, Evolution, p. 78. 
 
108 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 themselves to their environment, the only difference be- 
 tween the two being that the inorganic is slower than 
 the organic in this respect. In concluding a lecture on 
 evolution in general and life in particular Kay says 
 "there is then a continuity in the development of the 
 earth, and the inorganic world is just as wonderful as 
 the organic." If scientific thinkers of this attitude are 
 correct, and we have no reasons to disbelieve 'their 
 findings, then even in the inorganic world there is met 
 teleology, and immanent teleology is difficult to con- 
 ceive apart from a psychical activity. 
 
 So it is evident that in science and philosophy there 
 is strong opposition to the idea of separating the in- 
 organic from the organic world; it is just like trying 
 to divide the bud from the blossom. If evolution is 
 right in teaching that higher forms come from the 
 lower, that the organic has evolved from the inorganic 
 level, then the inorganic world has always held wrapped 
 up within itself the potentialities of higher developed 
 life, and even to-day must have in itself possibilities 
 yet to be unfolded. The only difference between the 
 two is that in the organic we have a higher develop- 
 ment or organization of energy units. Thus it seems 
 reasonable to believe that what holds good for the 
 organic world holds good for every form of being; if 
 psychical energy is dominant in one type, it is domi- 
 nant in all. 
 
 PSYCHICAL ENERGY AS THE ONLY REALITY 
 
 The dualist, however, might suggest the possibility 
 of spirit being the directing element and matter the 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 109 
 
 thing directed, without making spirit the only reality. 
 But the materialist and dualist, in clinging to matter 
 as a final reality will have a difficult task in endeavor- 
 ing to harmonize their philosophy with the modern be- 
 lief in the energy concept, for the conception of mat- 
 ter as a static, fixed substance will not stand in the 
 face of progress made by science in recent times. 
 Modern thought points the other way. "It is the dis- 
 covery of living processes of incessant adjustment and 
 adaptation, rather than of sequences purely mathema- 
 tical and mechanical, which has in recent years been 
 the source of philosophical reaction." 19 This attitude 
 is endorsed by Woodbridge, who says "this is the one 
 valuable and significant thing in modern philos- 
 ophy/' 20 
 
 So the question arises at this time as to what that 
 something is, which has been designated as physical or 
 material and which seems to be the means by which 
 the psychical achieves its ends. As the psychical is 
 understood to unfold itself in every part of the organ- 
 ism, it makes us wonder whether the old hypothesis of 
 mind and matter is not wrong after all. The relation- 
 ship between mind and body seems too smooth, too 
 perfect for two different entities to be rubbing up 
 against each other. Facts point to the existence of a 
 single substance. 
 
 In Part I we showed the strong monistic tendency 
 of scientific thought, culminating in the belief that 
 reality is energy. Science to-day is inclined toward a 
 monism, a monism of energy. It has been found that 
 
 19 Adams, Idealism and the Modern Age, p. 98. 
 
 20 Woodbridge, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scien- 
 tific Methods, Vol. XIV, p. 378. 
 
110 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 in the last analysis of things we come face to face with 
 the electrons which are but charges of electricity, a 
 form of energy. No such distinction is made as psych- 
 ical and physical energy. All the electrons are the 
 same, no matter where found. The atoms differ only 
 in the groupings of electrons constituting them. 
 
 If monism is correct, then, it would hardly be pos- 
 sible for everything to be material because modern 
 thought, as has been shown in detail, believes in the 
 presence and priority of psychical activities, of spirit. 
 On the basis of a monism of energy it is perhaps rea- 
 sonable to doubt whether there is such a thing as physi- 
 cal energy. In other words, we come to that place 
 where it is fair to question the existence of genuine 
 matter. But on the other hand it would seem incon- 
 sistent to question the reality of psychical energy; we 
 have found facts pointing to a psychical energy at 
 work and should feel kindly disposed toward a belief 
 in its reality. We are therefore inclined to believe 
 with Huxley that "Matter and Force are, as far as 
 we know, mere names for certain forms of conscious- 
 ness." "We find ourselves forced to interpret Nature 
 ... as an orderly realm of genuine conscious life, one 
 of whose products, expressions and examples we find 
 in the mind of man." 21 This is equivalent to saying 
 that the same thing which has been called body or 
 matter and through which mind seems to find expres- 
 sion is also of a psychical nature. These things being 
 true, it is in a spiritualistic monism then that Nature 
 seemingly finds its correct classification. 
 
 21 Royce, World and Individual, p. 242. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 111 
 
 ORGANIZED PSYCHICAL ENERGY AS A THEORY 
 OF REALITY 
 
 Facts indicate that Leibnitz was working on the 
 right principle. He resolves everything into monads, 
 centers of psychical, spiritual force. In the very low- 
 est types of being we find a group of monads cluster- 
 ing about a governing or central monad. This group 
 with other groups gather about a still more important 
 central soul; and so on until we come to the highest 
 type of being as found in mind and represented by 
 consciousness. The monads surrounding the central 
 monads or souls are continually changing but the gov- 
 erning souls never change. Here we have a world 
 alive with thought, ranging from the lowest, confused 
 perception, up to mind as consciousness. 
 
 The further we go into the study of reality the 
 more it seems that it is a program something 
 like that of Leibnitz which will stand the test of 
 time. Science finds that there are central cells 
 something like those to which Leibnitz refers. "There 
 is a popular fallacy in lay minds that the whole 
 human body is replaced by fresh material in a period 
 which by some whimsical fancy has been fixed at seven 
 years. As a matter of fact some cells are formed, 
 pass to maturity, and perish almost daily, while others 
 last as long as the animal itself. . . . These master 
 cells are to be found in the brain and other parts of the 
 central nervous system, in arterial walls, and in mech- 
 anisms which control the heart." 22 Starbuck says "the 
 parts in the finer anatomy which are especially essen- 
 
 22 Moore, The Origin and Nature of Life, p. 45. 
 
112 RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY 
 
 tial to mental activity are the cells for generating and 
 storing nervous energy, and a rich network of nerve 
 fibers with fatty wrappings for conducting the energy 
 from one part of the brain to another." 23 
 
 Hence we are led to a new conception of the human 
 body, seeing it as an intricate organisation of psychical 
 energy, in which can be found many minor groupings 
 or systems of more or less importance. Probably in 
 the lower organisms of the body we could find energy 
 units of the simplest organization gathering about the 
 most inferior cells, and in coming up through the more 
 complex systems connected with the more important 
 cells, finally find the whole system culminating in the 
 cells having to do with the brain. 
 
 This is not unlike Hughlings Jackson's theory of 
 "levels" or Flechsig's "associated centers." With 
 Jackson the lowest level heads up in the spinal cord, 
 medulla and pons and has to do with the simplest ac- 
 tivities of the body. The second level represents a 
 higher organization of relationships; and the third, 
 the highest, is supreme in heading up the entire nervous 
 system and represents mind. 
 
 We have shown that science believes that the same 
 principle of psychical activity is fundamental to all 
 being, animate and inanimate; to all bodies, organic 
 and inorganic. It seems reasonable then to accept that 
 system which sees in all Nature a vast organization of 
 psychical units of energy, which amounts to saying 
 that energy operates as a spiritual force. According 
 to this conception we meet in the lowest types of being 
 the most inferior organizations of energy units, the 
 units of every single body clustering about a governing 
 
 23 Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion, pp. 149-150. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION 113 
 
 nucleus or cell. And as we come up through the series 
 we meet the more complex groupings of energy units 
 until finally in the consciousness of mind is met the 
 highest degree of organization in all Nature. 
 
 Having come thus far, it would seem consistent in 
 this hypothesis to take another step and suggest a great 
 Mind or Spirit, in which is realized absolute conscious- 
 ness, dominating the world of spiritual energy. This 
 being accepted, we should have a common meeting 
 ground for scientific thought and those religious be- 
 liefs which represent the deeper intimations of human- 
 ity, even though science should see it as an over-belief 
 and theology should interpret it as a fact of experience. 
 Here then the religious devotee would be led to speak 
 in terms of energetic Spirit instead of an absentee God, 
 and the scientist in terms of spiritual energy rather 
 than materialism and mechanism. 
 
 It is further possible in this program of evolving 
 spiritual energy for the adherent of the Christian faith 
 to believe it was at that place where in the process of 
 development from the "dust of the earth" man came 
 into consciousness, that the great Spirit began to deal 
 with man as a person and that Biblical literature be- 
 gins its history of the human race; that it was when 
 man stepped forth a conscious being he became a 
 living soul, made in the image of God. In this vast 
 system then the mind of man stands above all organi- 
 zations of spiritual forces, crowning the network of 
 Nature's activities. This most highly organized sys- 
 tem of spiritual energy as represented in human con- 
 sciousness is probably the only organization of spirit 
 which knows no dissolution, making possible for man 
 the experience of immortality. 
 
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