Eucken has worked for many years at this difficult problem—­a problem so important in the life of civilisation and religion.  It has already been hinted that the conception bears striking resemblances to aspects of Hegel’s philosophy.  But there are differences.  One of these was pointed out long ago by Eucken:  “The gist of religion is with Hegel nothing but the absorption of the individual in the universal intellectual process.  How such a conception can be identified with moral regeneration of the Christian type, with purification of the heart, is unintelligible to us."[23] Eucken’s philosophy, on the other hand, is pre-eminently a spiritual activism.  The life-process is shaped by the collective activity of individuals; and when this activity slackens the ideals of the over-world suffer.  Man is thus called to be what he ought to be; and in the process he heightens something of the value of the Ought.  An Ought and a Will are involved in the creativeness of the individual life and of the Life-process; so that it is a mistake to conceive [p.80] of Eucken’s activism as some stirring of the individual to realise merely his own needs as these present themselves to him from moment to moment.  He is called and destined to do infinitely more; he is to be a creator of the Life-process and a carrier in the making of a new world; but all this can be done only from the standpoint of a vision of a spiritual life superior to history and to the individual himself.  Vision and action are to be ever present.  In the light of the vision man becomes more than he now is; through action the vision increases in depth and value.

What relation this has to the conception of the Godhead will be dealt with in a later chapter.  It is enough at present to bear in mind that, as far as we have gone, a reality above sense, time, history, and the content of the individual life has become evident.  And it is such a reality which gives meaning to the events of history.

It has to be borne in mind that much which is natural and of the earth enters into history.  Such effects have become clearly discernible in modern times.  Physical conditions do exercise an influence, and hem the course of the spiritual life.  The indifference of the physical order of things to the ethical values of history is a problem which constantly perplexes every thinking mind.  No solution to the puzzles of life is to be found in Nature.  What do we discover there?  “We discover enchainments [p.81] of phenomena which seem to conduct to the creation of great misery and which, with unmerciful callousness, drive man over the brink of an abyss.  The faintest hint would have sufficed to hold him back from such a catastrophe; but this is not given, and consequently destruction takes its course.  Petty accidents destroy life and happiness; a moment annihilates the most toilsome work.  Often, also, we discover a chaotic medley, a sudden overthrow of all potency, a seeming indifference towards all human weal and