1. How to establish the fundamental ethical dictum that every human being ought to count, and is intrinsically worth while. This dictum has been denied by many of the greatest thinkers, who assert the intrinsic inferiority of some men, the intrinsic superiority of others. The practice of the world also runs most distinctly contrary to it. How then is it to be validated? 2. The problem of how to attach a precise meaning to the term “spiritual,” thereby divesting it of the flavor of sentimentality and vagueness that attaches to it. 3. How to link up the world’s activities in science, art, politics, business, to the supreme ethical end. 4. How to lay foundations whereon to erect the conviction that there verily is a supersensible reality. For the repetitions that occur throughout the volume indulgence is requested. In presenting an unfamiliar system of thought they may sometimes assist the reader in retaining the thread. The work is conceived as a whole, and should be read through before any part of it is more minutely examined. The theory of Part II especially should be read in the light of the applications submitted in Parts III and IV. CONTENTS BOOK I AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION CHAPTER PAGE I. PRELUDE 3 II. THE HEBREW RELIGION 14 III. EMERSON 27 IV. THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS 30 V. SOCIAL REFORM 43 VI. THE INFLUENCE OF MY VOCATION ON INNER DEVELOPMENT 58 BOOK II PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: CRITIQUE OF KANT 73 II. CRITIQUE OF KANT (_Continued_) 82 III. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON WORTH, AND ON THE REASONS WHY THE METHOD EMPLOYED BY ETHICS MUST BE THE OPPOSITE OF THAT EMPLOYED BY THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES 91 IV. THE IDEAL OF THE WHOLE 100 V. THE IDEAL OF THE WHOLE AND THE ETHICAL MANIFOLD 114 VI. THE IDEAL OF THE SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE AND THE GOD-IDEAL 125 BOOK III APPLICATIONS: THE THREE SHADOWS, SICKNESS, SORROW AND SIN, AND THE RIGHT TO LIFE, PROPERTY AND REPUTATION I. INTRODUCTION 147 II. THE THREE SHADOWS: SICKNESS, SORROW, SIN 154 III. BEREAVEMENT 162 IV. THE SHADOW OF SIN 171