Completion

“ It denotes a greater emphasis on the perfection that exists within the act itself - the utmost completeness. Moreover, every act that refers to its own perfection and higher level indicates a greater understanding of the existence and perfection of the act - its ultimate completion. This understanding enables the knowledgeable to comprehend the existence and perfection of the act, which would not be possible if the act were not separate from its creator. ”

“ Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline; ”

“ The accomplishment of your purpose now means that your experience is viewed by you as the present and conscious expression of a plan. Well, what is, precisely in so far as it is, is in the same way a whole experience finally expressing and consciously fulfilling a plan. And the Being of the real object of which you now think means a life that expresses the fulfilment of just your present plan, in the greatest measure in which your plan itself is logically capable of fulfilment. ”

“ We may will one thing as leading to another, and that to a third, and so on; thus one wills study for learning, learning for examination purposes, examination for a commission in the army, and the commission for glory. That end in which the will rests, willing it for itself without reference to anything beyond, is called the last end.
3. An end is either objective or subjective. The objective end is the thing wished for, as it exists distinct from the person who wishes it. The subjective end is the possession of the objective end. ”

“ There is a Plan, an infinite, a just, a universal Plan, to which all things, mundane or otherwise, must, in the end, conform. To keep ourselves informed as to the part that we were meant to take in this great Plan, it seems to me, should be our constant study and our constant strong desire. ”

“ It is a life expressing in fulness what every transient moment of human consciousness fragmentarily embodies, and ideally seeks.
And as to finality, what constitution shall that realm of actual experience possess at all unless this constitution, in its wholeness, is indeed final, and final precisely in the sense of our Fourth Conception? For finality means, for us, the individual constitution of the realm of fact, interpreted in the only possible consistent way. You say, “Experience is.” If you are an empiricist you also say, “All that is, is, in at least one aspect, experienced fact.” ”

“ Now this disposition of our finite will, this tendency to a selection of our objects as unique, is precisely the character which our Fourth Conception regards as also belonging to that Absolute Will which faces the final meaning and fulfilment of the world. For the world as a whole is, from our point of view, an individual fact, not merely by virtue of the completeness of the contents of the Absolute Experience, but by reason of the definiteness of the selection of that object which shall be permitted to fulfil the final meaning. ”

“ First, then, there are certain respects in which I fully agree with recent pragmatism. I agree that every opinion expresses an attitude of the will, a preparedness for action, a determination to guide a plan of action in accordance with an idea. Whoever asserts anything about the way out of the woods, or about the cause and possible cure of a toothache, defines a course of action in accordance with some purpose, and amongst other things predicts the {146} possible outcome of that course of action. ”

“ That is of course why every work appears to be an outside construction beginning with previous elements; a phase of anticipation followed by a phase of execution, calculation, and art, an effective projecting cause, and a concerted goal, a mechanism which hurls to a finality which aims. ”

“ Why, work was the beginning and the end of everything. Reaching back to the beginnings of creation, extending clear until the last soul in heaven had passed on and through the training camp of the last hereafter, it was the thing that counted most. ”

“ A speech may be finished but far from complete. To finish is to bring to an end, but to complete is to bring to a state in which there is nothing more to do. You finish your dinner, but complete your toilet. ”

“ The glow of a first conception must in some measure survive or rekindle itself in the work of planning and executing; and what is called a technical expedient may ‘come’ to a man with as sudden a glory as a splendid image. ”

“ Every addition that is made to our knowledge of the plan of nature—and how numerous and startling are such additions now-a-days—is capable of being pressed into the service of one or other, or of both. ”

“ The present is the commencement of our existence; the endowments requisite for its purpose, and a firm footing in it, have been freely bestowed on us:—the future is the continuation of this existence, and in it we must acquire for ourselves a commencement, and a definite standing-point. ”

“ This law of growth, progress, evolution, unfoldment, by gradual and ever ascending stages, is absolute in every department of life, and in every human accomplishment, and where it is ignored, total failure will result. ”

“ Take the proposed Premisses, and ascertain, by the process described at p. 60, what Conclusion, if any, is consequent from them.
(2) If there be no Conclusion, say so.
(3) If there be a Conclusion, compare it with the proposed Conclusion, and pronounce accordingly.
I will now work out, in their briefest form, as models for the Reader to imitate in working examples, six Problems.
(1) “All soldiers are strong;
All soldiers are brave.
Some strong men are brave.”
Univ. “men”; m = soldiers; x = strong; y = brave. ”

“ In other words, we no longer take either horn of the dilemma, but we regard all knowable truths both as ends and as means; as the goal of one stage of knowledge and as the points of departure for another stage. ”

“ It must be understood, then, that, according to a rule of philosophy, all means must be proportioned to the end; that is to say, they must have some connection and resemblance with the end, such as is enough and sufficient for the desired end to be attained through them. I take an example. A man desires to reach a city ”

“ Hence, — and here, indeed, is the conclusion of the whole matter, — the very effort hypothetically to assert that the whole world of experience is a world of fragmentary and finite experience is an effort involving a contradiction. ”

“ Each stage of development brings back the recollection of the course taken in the preceding stage, and the development has been so often repeated, that all doubt—and with all doubt, all consciousness of action—is suspended. ”

“ Implies a Plan, and that Plan embraces human Conduct.—If we suppose the supreme Being to be, not only a Creator and Ruler, but a wise and intelligent one, then we must suppose him to have some plan of operations. ”

“ The cause which we have espoused possesses, probably, to-day, a greater degree of prosperity than it has ever done from its commencement. Thus may it ever be from this time henceforth and for ever! From the commencement of this work until the present time we have continually increased in power and numbers, and in blessings from the Lord our God ”

“ I had early perceived that to obtain the desired end, every particular must be studied and provided for, so that all elements of enduring success should be united, and all obstructive elements removed. ”

“ He shall not prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth; neither the credit nor the comfort of his riches shall be prolonged; and, when those are gone, where is the perfection of them? How indeed can we expect the perfection of any thing to be prolonged upon the earth, where every thing is transitory, and we soon see the end of all perfection? Thirdly, He is in care to leave what he has got and kept to his children after him. ”

“ The objective end is a theoretical organization. a logical articulation of things known, the lines of which must not be deflected by any consideration of expediency or convenience, but must run true to the canons of reality accepted at the time. These canons of reality, or of verity, have varied from time to time, have in fact varied incontinently with the passage of time and the mutations of experience. ”

“ This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.
In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly Perfection gained slowly work up to perfection. ”

“ We use the term in its most comprehensive sense, comprehensive as the being of God and of nature, comprehensive as the nature and wants of man, and comprehensive as the powers and progress of the immortal mind. ”

“ Likewise every arrangement and formation that is not perfect in its order we designate as accidental, and that which is orderly, regular, perfect in its relations and every part of which is in its proper place and is the essential requisite of the other constituent parts, this we call a composition formed through will and knowledge. There is no doubt that these infinite beings and the association of these diverse elements arranged in countless forms must have proceeded from a Reality that could in no wise be bereft of will or understanding. ”

“ We must remember that we are in the advance; for the Lord has said, in these days, he has commenced to do a great work, and called upon his servants to lay the foundation of it. The foundation being laid, then the work has to be done. ”

“ We will pursue for our plan, the exact reverse of the ordinary method. We will learn the doctrines of the day, as the first and most necessary step, and we will then glance over those which have passed away, as researches rather curious than useful. ”

“ What was once undertaken had to be finished, even if the inconvenience, tedium, vexation, nay, uselessness, of the thing begun were plainly manifested in the mean time. It seemed as if he regarded completeness as the only end, and perseverance as the only virtue. ”

“ Still, you are complete today and you will remain complete next year. But you will be more complete. Your growth will be from smaller complete to the larger complete, but you will be complete at both times. You will not grow from the incomplete to the complete, but from the complete to the complete. ”

“ It is to study the succession of events, not as separate units, but as links of one vast chain, on every one of which is inscribed a phrase discoursing of the progress of the human race, and showing the growth of man in the complex, from infancy to adolescence. ”

“ Now our very power to make the whole of Being our problem, already implies that the object of our inquiry, whatever it proves to contain, has as the fulfilment of one idea, the constitution of a single life of concrete fulfilment. ”

“ THE PURPOSE OF THE COURSE The early question of the old creeds, "What is the chief end of man?" was conceived in a spirit more practical than academic. It was the voice of the constant inquiry as to the purpose of living. ”

“ It was Philosophy, or philosophers, as I have said, that first discerned the fact of Progress, named it, and divined its lineaments. To Philosophy the name and notion of Progress belongs as of right—the right of first occupation. Merely to have invented a name for the fact is no small service, for thus the fact was fixed for further study and examination. ”

“ Throughout these tales the plan has been to present a picture of ordinary life, with its small daily events, its pleasures, and its trials, so as to draw out its capabilities of being turned to the best account. ”

“ In this work, while presenting general rather than detailed conclusions or statements, he would show that nature, in spite of her seeming complexity, is yet a unit and governed by a definite and well-ordered plan. ”

“ But when we come to a progressive creature, whose condition implies a beginning, and therefore suggests an end, we form a peculiar judgment with respect to God's care of that creature, which we have not as yet seen the slightest grounds to extend to other possible fields of existence, where we discern no indication of progress, of beginning, or of end. ”

“ Throughout it was essentially one phase of human organization. When one comes to examine the final result, it is astonishing to remark the small amount of essential change, of positively final and irreparable alteration, in the conditions of the common life. ”

“ In completing everything beginning and ending has no meaning and why should beginning and ending have meaning if everything is something. Why should they have meaning if deciding anything is what any one is doing. ”

“ Now this original constitution of the mind being preserved, the further development and progress of knowledge and truth may be regarded as the second step of internal creation, wherein the light begins to shine more and more on the mind and on science. ”

“ The conclusion, based upon accumulated facts, as we have seen, that matter alone is at once the thing acting, and the thing acted upon,—eternal in duration, infinitely various and varying in appearance ”

“ On the contrary, the higher, over-individual ends, as they are sometimes called, — politics, industry, science, literature, art — imply a differentiation among men that in spite of its significance would defy classification. ”

“ Progress and human nature.—Progress, which is much a matter of interpretation, is also very largely a matter of temperament. The purpose of the material upon human nature and progress is to call attention to this fact. Progress is with most people an article of faith, and men's faiths, as to their content, at least, are matters of temperament. ”

“ The decision of the mind, founded upon our own experience, derived from these sources, claims the next degree.
The experience of others, which addresses itself to the former one, occupies the lowest degree. ”