ly
object, that this terminal phase differs from all the previous phases in
one all-important feature--viz., in effecting a _total abolition_ of the
anthropomorphic element. Before, therefore, it can be shown that this
terminal phase is a further development of _Theism_, it must he shown that
Theism still remains Theism after this hitherto characteristic element has
been removed. If it is true, as Mr. Fiske very properly insists, that all
the various forms of belief in God have thus far had this as a common
factor, that they ascribed to God the attributes of Man; it becomes a
question whether we may properly abstract this hitherto invariable factor
of a belief, and still call that belief by the same name. Or, to put the
matter in another light, as cosmists maintain that Theism, in all the
phases of its development, has been the product of a probably erroneous
theory of personal agency in nature, when this theory is expressly
discarded--as it is by the doctrine of the Unknowable--is it
philosophically legitimate for cosmists to render their theory of things in
terms which belong to the totally different theory which they discard? No
doubt it is true that the progressive refinement of Theism has throughout
consisted in a progressive discarding of anthropomorphic qualities; but
this fact does not touch the consideration that, when we proceed to strip
off the last remnants of these qualities, we are committing an act which
differs _toto coelo_ from all the previous acts which are cited as
precedents; for by this terminal act we are not, as heretofore, _refining_
the theory of Theism--we are completely _transforming_ it by removing an
element which, both genetically and historically, would seem to constitute
the very essence of Theism.

Or the case may be presented in yet another light. The only use of terms,
whether in daily talk or in philosophical disquisition, is that of
designating certain things or attributes to which by general custom we
agree to affix them; so that if anyone applies a term to some thing or
attribute which general custom does not warrant him in so applying, he is
merely laying himself open to the charge of abusing that term. Now apply
these elementary principles to the case before us. We have but to think of
the disgust with which the vast majority of living persons would regard the
sense in which Mr. Fiske uses the term "Theism," to perceive how intimate
is the association of that term with the idea o