God in Evolution; A Pragmatic Study of Theology (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX A The Evidential Value of Analogy ALL our constructive knowledge is conditioned upon one great fact of the universe that underlies it. Experience has demonstrated that the universe is, to a very great extent, a series of modified repetitions, so that an intimate knowledge of any one part of it is, within certain limits, a true guide to the interpretation of other parts of it and, progressively, to every part. On this fact all our analogical thinking hinges; and, so far as elaborated knowledge is concerned, all our progress is dependent upon the use of analogy. The intellectual process through which our knowledge is continually extending its bounds has three well defined stages which are interdependent. These three stages we may call investigation, speculation, substantiation. The first and the last of these are the prosaic parts of knowledge-getting. They have to do with the actualities of the world, and involve plodding, laborious application to details. The middle term or stage is, on the contrary, an activity of the imaginative faculty, in the exercise of which, construction is absolutely unfettered. Like a sorcerer, it makes and unmakes, builds and destroys without stint. In it the poetry of the world takes its rise, and inheres. Without it there would be no enthusiasm in living, no idealizing, no uplift from the heavy, dull round of necessary occupation. It is the very soul of art. It is the solace of our quiet hours; it is also the instigator of all our bravest and noblest endeavours. It holds us to our purposes, makes us strong in adversity, loyal in the presence of seductions. It is the faculty by which we transcend ourselves and rise in the scale of being. But all its nobler uses are conditioned upon discipline; that is, upon its working...