--or till recently did
dominate--the religious cosmography of the most civilised peoples.

In Philosophy our leading teachers seem as yet to have a very feeble
appreciation of the new conditions. They turn greedily to the eloquent
pages of _L'Evolution creatrice_, but however earnestly they search they
cannot find there any definite solution of the difficulties of the
age-old problem. They wander wearily through the mazes of psychological
detail or wage almost childish logomachies over the interpretation of
each other's essays. Philosophical magazines are filled with articles
which reflect this state of the philosophic mind. Philosophical
congresses meet and argue and go home; Gifford lecturers prelect; yet so
far as can be seen there is little sign that the key has been grasped.
The great fact remains obscured amidst a mass of words.

The elucidation of the problem of Knowledge demands certain improvements
in our philosophic terminology. Language as a rule is a very unerring
philosopher, and words shaped and polished by long usage generally
express, more truly than those who use them realise, the essential
reality of things. Yet these long-enduring errors of the ages which we
have been discussing here have left their impress too on the terminology
of Metaphysics.

Thought and Action are in common speech contrasted, and the distinction
expresses an essential truth. But when we seek to say further that both
of these are Activities, we are stating another truth in terms which are
hardly consistent with the previously contrasted distinction. It might
be better if Action and Active could be applied generally to both and if
the term _exertion_ could be substituted for Action in describing the
forms of activity which we denominate _motor_. To that suggestion,
however, there are also serious objections. The words derived from _ago_
have historically a special application to the exertional and dynamic.
We leave the question to our readers as one of which it is of
considerable importance to find a satisfactory solution.

In the foregoing pages our object has been to illustrate the erroneous
conceptions by which the theory of human cognition has been obscured and
to explain briefly what we conceive to be the true solution. The
argument in support of the doctrine here explained has been more fully
presented by the present writer in an essay entitled _The Dynamic
Foundation of Knowledge_, to which the reader who desires to study