ABSTRACT
The conclusions of the preceding chapter may now be considered in their bearing upon transcendence and immanence. We found in the first place that the complex automatism of the physical universe—regarded of course in its true character as a mechanism—is so perfect that it is altogether impossible for purely scientific investigation to discern therein the immediate influence of any dominant mind. It may still be possible for this universe so to affect our aesthetic or religious sensitivity as to produce the conviction that such a mind actually exists; but this aspect of the situation is here excluded because it turns upon an issue not purely intellective; and with this proviso it follows that the “transition from mechanism to a dominating mind must be deferred to the farthest possible point and moment”. 1 If then such a mind really exists, it need be only transcendent. Of course it might conceivably still continuously influence the mechanism of the material world; but as this influence is here ex hypothesi totally indiscernible, 2 it must remain, so far as the human intellect is concerned, wholly transcendent.
