over
the merely material and mental.

The natural life of man has been variously viewed in different ages. The
writer of the Pentateuch described man as made in the image of God, and
the natural man was exalted on this account. Some of the old Greek
philosophers, too, found much in nature that was divine. Christianity
took a different view of the matter--it exalted the spirit, and
emphasised the baseness of the material. The growth of the sciences made
man again a mere tool of laws and methods, but it considered matter as
superior to mind, mind being entirely dependent upon impressions
received from matter. The question continually recurs--which is the
high, which is the low? Shall nature triumph over spirit, or spirit over
nature?

Pantheism replies to the question by denying that there is anything high
as distinguished from the low. There is but one; and that one--the whole
universe--is God. There is no evil in the world, says pantheism,
everything is good--if we could understand things as they really are we
should find no oppositions in the universe, and no contradictions in the
nature of things. The world as it is, is the best of all possible
worlds--there is perfect harmony, though we fail to appreciate it. Other
optimistic theories, too, deny the existence of evil and pain, and try
to explain our ideas of sin to be mere "points of view." If we could see
the whole, they tell us, we should see how the parts harmonise, but now
we only see some of the parts and fail to appreciate the harmony. In
this way they try to explain away as unreal the phenomena of evil and
pain.

But Eucken has no patience with such theories. For him the oppositions
and contradictions of life are too real and persistent. The antagonisms
"stir us with disgust and indignation." Evil cannot be considered
trivial, and must not be glossed over; it is in the world, and the more
deeply we appreciate the fact the better it will be for the human soul.

Man in his lower stages of development is just a child of nature, and
his standards of life are those of the lower world. He seeks those
things that satisfy the senses, he attempts the satiation of the lower
cravings. In the realm of morals his standard is utility--that is good
which helps him to obtain more pleasure and to avoid pain. In social
life his conduct is dictated by custom--this is the highest appeal. The
development of man along the lines of nature ends at this point--and if
nothing more