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Let us call the inner nature of which we are conscious spiritual in order to distinguish it from the physical nature which -is the object of natural science. Now this spiritual nature utters itself in several great charac- teristic needs. There is first the requirement of freedom it requires to be assured that the inner nature of things whose outer movements obey the law of physical causation shall not be alien to its own agency which is that of self- initiative self-determination. Secondly there is the problem of destiny it requires to be assured that the inner nature of things which manifests itself in perishable phenomena shall not be hostile to its own perdurability It could have no place in world that is perishable at its heart. Finally there is the question of God it asks to be assured that at the foundation of the world there is an eternal being akin to itself in which its own life is rooted its own ideal interests destiny secured. prev next |