Now, precisely the same change must take place in our conception of design in Nature. To the uncultured there is a distinct and separate design in every separate work of Nature. But, as science advances, all these distinct, separate, petty, man-like designs are merged into fewer and grander designs, until, finally, in evolution at last, we reach the conception of the one infinite, all-embracing design, stretching across infinite space, and continuing unchanged through infinite time, which includes and predetermines and absorbs every possible separate design. There is still design in everything, but no longer a separate design--only a separate manifestation of the one infinite design. Thus, then, our own self-consciousness and will and thought give rise, necessarily, to the conception of an infinite self-consciousness, will, and thought--i. e., God. The necessity to believe in self-conscious spirit behind bodily phenomena compels us to believe also in an infinite self-conscious spirit behind cosmic phenomena. Looking at the operations of this ever-active spirit, whether in the one case or the other, _from the outside_, it looks like unconscious energy inherent in matter itself, and therefore like necessity, or fate. But, looked at from the inside _in the one case_, the brain, we perceive only self-conscious, free activity of spirit. Therefore, we are compelled to acknowledge in the other case, the cosmos, also, the same source of all activity, the same cause of all phenomena. We are compelled to acknowledge an infinite immanent Deity behind phenomena, but manifested to us on the outside as an all-pervasive energy. But some portion of this all-pervasive energy again individuates itself more and more, and therefore acquires more and more a kind of independent self-activity which reaches its completeness in man as self-consciousness and free-will. We said, “_a kind of_ independent self-activity.” How this comports with the absoluteness of God we can not understand, any more than we can understand how it comports with invariable law in Nature. We simply accept them both as primary truths, even though we can never hope to reconcile them completely, because we can not understand the exact nature of the relation of spirit to matter. We can not look at the outside and the inside at the same time. If we could understand the relation of psychical phenomena to brain-changes, then might we hope to understand far more perfectly than now the relation of God to Nature. But as in the one case, the brain, although we can not understand the _nature_ of the relation, yet we are sure of the intimacy of the connection of the two series, psychical and physical, term for term; so in the other case, the cosmos, although we can not understand the exact _nature_, we are sure of the intimacy of the connection, _term for term_--every material phenomenon and event with a corresponding psychical phenomenon as its cause. CHAPTER VII.