THE genius of that remarkable phase of intellectual awakening known as the modern scientific spirit, lies in the determination it evinces to establish human learning on a basis of fact. The indefatigable energy displayed in canvassing previously unexplored fields, analyzing and tabulating data, and correlating the results of such observation, mark the climax of human enterprise in the quest of knowledge. And yet, with all its logical consistency, comprehensive scope, and organic unity, this movement has tarried far afield in its philosophical outcome. Although presuming to build on a foundation of fact, it has, indeed, in accepting physical sense testimony as to what constitutes fact, rested its case on mere assumption; for it is manifestly impossible to trace any legitimate connection or relationship between the alleged facts of material phenomena to which the senses bear witness and the primal, self-evident facts of being which are known only through the medium of the higher intuitions, inasmuch as the two orders of evidence flatly contradict each other in most important respects.
A fact may be defined as truth expressed; and if, as appears self-evident, truth is one in its integrity, there can, strictly speaking, be no contradictory facts. But the point of view of the physical senses is constantly shifting, and with each shift the aspect of things is altered. The material appearance which at one point is taken to represent a fact, changes and disappears as we move on. Although the inductive method as applied to the development of the physical sciences has led to a phenomenal expansion in the bulk of human learning and rendered incalculable service in utilitarian directions, it has proven its inability to advance thought beyond the plane of relative concepts and contradictory appearances to the realm of absolute truth. It is clear that no exact or scientific knowledge of being can be acquired by following deceptive impressions which afford no clue to a central or stable point of observation; any more than a correct idea of the movements of the planetary system can be obtained from a terrestrial point of view.
If, as the profoundest intuitions of mankind indicate, Spirit is the origin and ultimate of man's being, the normal trend of human progress must inevitably lead to a reaction against the supremacy of any system "whose implications are distinctly materialistic and agnostic. It is a matter of history that the great epoch-making steps in the enlightenment and emancipation of thought have come about not through revision or modification of existing systems, but through reorganization of experience around a distinctively new ideal or point of view. It would be but natural, under these circumstances, to anticipate the arrival of a great spiritual movement commensurate with the demands of the period.
