science attempts is the simpler one of the correlation of natural
phenomena, and in this effort leaves the ultimate problems of
metaphysics untouched. A universe, however, whose phenomena are not
only capable of some degree of correlation, but present the
extraordinary degree of harmony and unity which science makes manifest
in Nature, cannot be, as in animism, the product of a vast number of
inco-ordinated and antagonistic wills, but must either be the product of
one Will, or not the product of will at all.

The latter alternative means that the Cosmos is inexplicable, which
not only man's growing experience, but the fact that man and the
universe form essentially a unity, forbid us to believe. The term
"anthropomorphic" is too easily applied to philosophical systems, as
if it constituted a criticism of their validity. For if it be true,
as all must admit, that the unknown can only be explained in terms of
the known, then the universe must either be explained in terms of
man--_i.e_. in terms of will or desire--or remain incomprehensible.
That is to say, a philosophy must either be anthropomorphic, or no
philosophy at all.

Thus a metaphysical scrutiny of the results of modern science leads us
to a belief in God. But man felt the need of unity, and crude animism,
though a step in the right direction, failed to satisfy his thought,
long before the days of modern science. The spirits of animism, however,
were not discarded, but were modified, co-ordinated, and worked into a
system as servants of the Most High. Polytheism may mark a stage in
this process; or, perhaps, it was a result of mental degeneracy.

What I may term systematised as distinguished from crude animism
persisted throughout the Middle Ages. The work of systematisation