is inference: first, a
metaphysical conception of unity as something that was demanded by the
sense of perfectness in the world; and, secondly, observation of facts
that appeared to characterize the world as a unit. Among several
different peoples, and apparently in each independently, the idea arose
that the divine manifests itself in the world of phenomena and is
recognizable only therein. Such a view appears in India in the Vedanta
philosophy, and in Greece a little later it is more or less involved in
Orphic theories and in the systems of several philosophers. The tendency
to deify nature appears even in writers who do not wholly exclude gods
from their schemes of the world--in the sayings of Heraclitus, for
example: "All things are one," "From all comes one, and from one comes
all." A similar view is attributed to Xenophanes by Aristotle,[1824] and
traces of such a conception appear in Euripides.[1825] For the modern
forms of pantheism, in Spinoza and other philosophers, reference must be
made to the histories of philosophy.

+1005+. Pantheism has never commended itself to the masses of men. It is
definitely theistic, but the view that the divine power is visible only
in phenomena and is to be identified practically with the world is one
that men in general find difficult to comprehend. The demand is for a
deity with whom one may enter into personal relations--the simple
conception of a god who dwells apart satisfies the religious instincts
of the majority of men. The ethical questions arising from pantheism
seem to them perplexing: how can man be morally responsible when it is
the deity who thinks and acts in him? and how can he have any sense of
loyalty to a deity whom he cannot distinguish from himself? Nor do men
generally demand so absolute a unity as is represented by pantheism.
Such questions as those relating to the eternity of matter, the
possibility of the existence of an immaterial being, and the mode in
which such a being, if it exists, could act on matter, have not seemed
practical to the majority of men. Man demands a method of worship, and
pantheism does not permit organized worship. For these reasons it has
remained a sentiment of philosophers, though it has not been without
effect in modifying popular conceptions of the deity: the conception of
the immanence of God in the world (held in many Christian orthodox
circles), when carried to its legitimate consequences, it is often hard
to distinguish fr