87 Universe 2. The Summum Bonum, Happiness or Perfection of Being the Divinely appointed Ideal of Human Conception, or Rational Mental Representation as end of Action or purpose in Action 93 3. Perfect Spiritual Harmony its Condition-The Conditions of such Perfection of Being or Happiness are the Integrated Union of Two Complementary or Correlated Personalities 1. Morality Defined as the Sense of Responsibility to our Creator to Act according to the Rational Nature He has given us— Arising out of the Reflective Introspective Consciousness of "Self-Love, Social and Divine"-The Rational Obligation or Duty of Human Beings is Properly to Act always in Ac- Part I. AN ANALYSIS OF REASON-BEING THE SOURCE OF CONCEPTION-THE TRUE, THE REAL. § 1. IN pondering over the infidelity and secularism so prevalent at the present day, I have arrived at the conclusion that it is mainly owing to the want of a clear conception of what the natural or typical process of thought is. This want I have endeavoured to supply, feeling assured that a clear statement of the process is all that is needed to make spiritual truth self-evident. Had any philosopher, either ancient or modern, even attempted to draw up a definite scheme of spontaneous mental action, explaining the normal process of thought and the genesis of mental representation or ideation, so as to make it evident that the foundations of our religious faith are rooted in the very being of man, I should not have felt the need of undertaking this work. It was only after a vain search for any firm ground in the works of others on which to rest, that I was forced upon myself for an examination into the nature of the foundations; and having, after long and careful thought, discovered the firm basis on which man's highest hopes are grounded, I wanted others to share the great benefit which I feel this knowledge confers. I do not, of course, intend to convey the idea that no trace of what I here produce can be found in any other writer. On the contrary, the principle having once been got hold of, confirmations of its truth, partial and dim statements, in sentences found here and there in different parts of their works, may be discovered in writers of every school, though the full significance of what they really stated I believe the writers themselves were not aware of. For what I maintain is-that since, as has been shown by several writers, the end of all human action, the one never-absent motive in all that man ever either does or proposes, is always either to get something that he regards as good, either for himself or for some one else, or to do the best he can for himself or for some one else, so the rational inference resulting from this, which has been so clearly shown, is, that we cannot but believe that the good of all His creatures is the ultimate aim of man's Creator. Yet this teaching of the principle of sufficient reason has either not been accompanied by the doctrine of Efficient Causation, or, if this has been insisted upon, the Principle of Sufficient Causation has been omitted. What I feel has never before been advanced is, the demonstration of the triform nature of thought, and this it is that I feel marks my theory as original. For although, as I have said, it has been shown by several writers that action is for the best |