Lastly, Pantheism assumes the Something now existing to have
been self-created. To which, then, of these distinct theories is Cosmic
Theism most nearly allied? For the purpose of answering this question, I
shall render that theory in terms of a formula which Mr. Fiske presents as
a full and complete statement of the theory:--"_There exists a_ POWER, _to
which no limit in space or time is conceivable, of which all phenomena, as
presented in consciousness, are manifestations, but which we can only know
through these manifestations._" But although the word "Power" is here so
strongly emphasised, we are elsewhere told that it is not to be regarded as
having more than a strictly relative or symbolic meaning; so that, in point
of fact, some more neutral word, such as "Something," "Being," or
"Substance," ought in strictness to be here substituted for the word
"Power." Well, if this is done, we have the postulation of a Being which is
self-existing, infinite, and eternal--relatively, at all events, to our
powers of conception. Thus far, therefore, it would seem that we are still
on the common standing-ground of Atheism, Pantheism, and Theism; for as it
is not, so far as I can see, incumbent on Pantheism to affirm that "thought
is a measure of things," the _apparent_ or _relative_ eternity which the
Primal Something must be supposed to present may not be _actual_ or
_absolute_ eternity.
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